Seidl says McLaren needs to take risks in current position

McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andreas Seidl says he will encourage the Woking squad to take risks in its recovery bid.

Following a disastrous three-year engine tie-up with Honda, McLaren finished sixth in the 2018 standings and has continued to make impressive progress this season.

McLaren currently leads the midfield pack in fourth-place with a 20-point buffer to the Renault works squad which supplies its engines thanks to a promising start to the year.

And new F1 boss Seidl says he is not against taking risks in the team’s continued push to return to winning ways at the top of the pecking order.

“I’m a guy who encourages people to take risks, to protect them when something goes wrong,” Seidl said. “You have to accept that mistakes are happening.

“For sure, you should try to prevent them in the first place, or you should make sure they don’t happen a second time. But with the position we are in, we need to take risks.

“But to do that you also need to have a certain confidence again, also inside the team, a certain culture and spirit. And I think that’s something we have to build up now again together. Not saying that it’s too bad.

“I was really impressed when I started with all the good results already this year. How positive the atmosphere was and how good the momentum was which was there. And it’s just important now to keep going in that direction.”

Seidl says he wants to get McLaren back into a position where it can start to develop “adventurous” and “aggressive” concept designs, like current world champions Mercedes is able to do.

“The most important thing for me is to have continuous development, see continuous improvement as a team back home, and out here,” Seidl explained.

“I mean it’s important that we also take our time to make sure we go into detail in terms of the methods, tools and everything we are using to develop this stuff.

“Because that’s the foundation in the end for an aggressive development which is required, especially when you have a gap like we have. You need to build up this confidence again inside the team.

“But also brave enough to take, let’s say, risky or adventurous concept decisions. That’s something that other teams with a lot of experience and confidence, like Mercedes, can do.

“It’s important to also, let’s say, to be in categories like pits stops, race strategy showing already now that we can take the fight with the big ones, because it’s clear that that’s had a gap on the performance side and that’s something that will take time.”