McLaren: No reason to give up the F1 fight against Ferrari for P3

Since scoring a 1-2 finish in the Italian Grand Prix in September, McLaren has seen its grip on third place in the standings loosen as Ferrari has fought back.

Boosted by an upgraded hybrid system on its power unit, Ferrari has outscored McLaren in each of the last three races, turning a 17.5-point deficit into a 13.5-point lead after Sunday’s race in Mexico.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr finished fifth and sixth, while McLaren scored just a single point courtesy of Lando Norris in P10 after seeing Daniel Ricciardo drop down the order following a lap-one collision with Valtteri Bottas.

But Seidl felt the setback was no reason for McLaren to keel over in the battle against Ferrari, saying difficult days could easily happen the other way around.

“The most important thing is to accept is that days like today can happen in racing, they’re part of the sport,” Seidl said after the race in Mexico.

“At the same time, they can happen to your competitor. So there is no reason to give up this fight. It’s important to move on. Luckily there is another race straightaway next weekend, and then we can try to strike back.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

“Of course it’s disappointing for us today to only score one point, which is a big hit for scoring in the constructors’ championship.

“But again, the same can happen to our competitors. We just have to stay focused on ourselves, and make sure that we keep scoring points consistently, which we didn’t manage today.”

The high-altitude conditions in Mexico meant teams had to run their high downforce aerodynamic packages, somewhere Seidl acknowledged McLaren was “on the back foot compared to Ferrari”.

Seidl added that it was “so difficult to predict” which of the remaining four tracks may suit McLaren more than Ferrari.

“There are so many factors that play a role here: temperatures, tyre selection, the downforce level, track characteristics obviously,” Seidl said.

“We have seen it many times this year already, that it was difficult to predict and may play out different than everyone expected.”