McLaren: Fighting F1 engine suppliers Renault ‘not complicated’

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl insists fighting its engine supplier Renault over midfield honours during the 2019 Formula 1 season is not complicated.

The Woking squad currently sits fourth in the constructors’ championship, 21 points clear of the Renault works outfit which supplies McLaren with its power units.

The battle between the two teams looks set to continue all season-long, but Seidl stressed the relationship between McLaren and Renault remains “healthy” as the French manufacturer continues to be “very transparent” with McLaren.

“It definitely looks like the main battle in the midfield will be between us and Renault,” Seidl said.

“And now it depends on continuously bringing updates, learning about the car, execution of the races, and so I’m happy that we could again score one more point than Renault.

Asked if the battle is complicated with McLaren being a customer, Seidl replied: “No. to be honest I said already several times we have a very good, healthy relationship with Renault.

“Very transparent. The step Renault made from last year to this year is one of the reasons also why we could make this step with the car.

“Our relationship is really purely on the powertrain side and as a team we are an independent team and we want to stay an independent team.”

Seidl said McLaren is satisfied with its working relationship with Renault but added that “everything is open” for 2021 when the next set of regulations are introduced.

“It’s known that we have a relationship with Renault for next year, from 2021 onwards everything is open, but again our main focus is on Renault, we’re happy with the partnership.

“We have full transparency with Renault, full confidence in the partnership we are having, and also from the regulation side there’s a regulation in place that say main team and customers get the main material and power modes and everything.

“Whenever they brought an update so far, first of all it’s transparent what is happening in terms of timing. And as they have done in Barcelona when we got the first upgrade in terms of reliability it both was applied at the same time in terms of upgrade.

“Sometimes we don’t do it at the same time as it depends on planning into the overall season to avoid penalties as much as possible.”