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McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl says the team has a “clear plan” to regain competitiveness after a slightly better showing at the Australian GP last weekend. Seidl believes that the process will take a “bit of time” and called for patience amid huge expectations from the team this season.
Speaking to PlanetF1 following the Australian GP, he said:
“I’m very happy to say we have a clear plan in place now of what we need to do with the car in terms of making steps in terms of performance. This will take a bit of time. So, we need to be patient despite all the ambition. But the most important thing is we have a clear plan that we will execute now.”
Refusing to delve into specific details on what the team is currently working on, Seidl reiterated the importance of “balancing” all aspects of the car amid the cost cap and wind tunnel testing restrictions. He added, saying:
“In terms of when this is happening exactly, I don’t want to go too much into detail. There are different parameters you have to manage when you do that, there’s the cost cap which you need to consider, there is the limited wind tunnel time also that you have nowadays, which you need to consider. That’s why you need to package it a bit as well as what you are doing.”
Slow speed corners are a key concern for McLaren
One of the key weaknesses of the McLaren MCL36 is its poor performance in slow-speed corners, according to Andreas Seidl.
Combined with the brake and engine overheating problems that the team experienced in Bahrain, Seidl believes a lack of traction in slow-speed corners is the root cause for the majority of their problems. Speaking to PlanetF1, he said:
“It was obviously important, after realising we are lacking performance, to analyse and do the studies to work out how we can improve performance as quickly as possible. If you look at the overlays from Bahrain, we were missing grip and performance. You can also see from the overlays in Australia that is where we are the weakest compared to the top cars.”
McLaren is reportedly working hard to bring fixes to its current issues within the next few races. Seidl hopes that the team will be able to compete at the sharp end of the midfield once again.
