McLaren taking ‘lots of positives’ from first three races – but say they ‘must improve’ ahead of Silverstone

There was much for McLaren to be happy about in the first three races of 2020, with the team currently sitting third in the constructors’ standings, having already scored more than a quarter of the points they accrued in 2019. But following a mixed weekend in Hungary, Team Principal Andreas Seidl was looking to fine-tune the performance of the team’s MCL35 in preparation for a brace of Silverstone races.

After the highs of the first two races at the Red Bull Ring, where McLaren secured a podium in the Austrian Grand Prix courtesy of Lando Norris en route to a points haul of 39 across the two race weekends, the Hungaroring brought the team back down to Earth, as Carlos Sainz finished ninth while Norris failed to score for the first time this season down in 13th.

“Unfortunately, after two very good weekends, our race here in Hungary was compromised from the start,” said Seidl after the Grand Prix. “Lando had an issue off the line that lost him a lot of positions, but he kept fighting and made his way back up to P13.

“With Carlos, we were unlucky. He lost several positions after his pit stop when the pit lane was blocked with other cars, not allowing him to leave the pit box. It took a great drive from him to make it back to P10 [which became P9 after a penalty for Kevin Magnussen] after that. Both drivers fought excellently, giving it their all right to the end and not giving up.”

Norris and Sainz had a harder time of it in Hungary – even if Norris probably enjoyed this scrap with Charles Leclerc

Seidl went on to praise his team’s work over the first triple header of the year – but warned that while there had been “lots of positives” to take from 2020’s opening gambit, Hungary had exposed some key areas of weakness in the team's current package.

“We really pulled through as a team and we’re travelling back to the UK with 41 points in the constructors’,” said Seidl.

“We now go home and will take the next few days to reset and analyse in detail what happened over these first races… We’ll take away a lot of positives from this opening stint, but also know there are areas in which we must improve. We’ll use the time we have before going to Silverstone to do just that.”