Seidl ‘couldn’t wish for any better two drivers’ at McLaren

McLaren Formula 1 chief Andreas Seidl says he could not wish for any better two drivers than Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz following the team’s impressive start to the 2019 season.

Sainz and Norris formed an all-new line-up at McLaren for 2019 following the departure of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, and have quickly made an impact with a string of impressive displays through the first half of the campaign.

McLaren sits fourth in the constructors’ championship, leading the gaggle of midfield teams by 39 points, and has already beaten its final points total from last year.

Asked to rate Norris and Sainz’s starts to the season out of 10, Seidl joked he would “give them both a nine” as “there is always something to improve” before heaping praise on their performances and impact at the team.

“I’m very happy, to be honest, with everything they have done this year,” Seidl said.

“There were not a lot of mistakes, to be honest. They were pulling off the performance in all the qualifying sessions, race by race, they’ve been pulling off great race starts, they pull off great race performances.

“As I said before, the work they put in also together with the engineers, how they give the feedback also in terms of giving clear direction of where the weaknesses are in the car, it’s impressive for me.

“I couldn’t wish for any better two drivers at the moment.”

McLaren has already locked both Sainz and Norris in for the 2020 season, making it one of just two teams to have set its line-up for next year.

“We are happy that we have these two drivers here on our side. And again, it’s also the reason why we announced early on so that we move on into next year,” Seidl said.

“We are very impressed by the performance of these two guys they are having, by the way they work together with the engineers, with me, and with you guys [the media]. It’s an important element of the positive spirit and atmosphere and morale that we are having right now inside the team, which for me is key to making the next step as a team.

“I think they can have a great future with us. It’s down to us, to me, to make sure with the team that we deliver for them in the future a machine for them to fight higher up in terms of positions.”