Andreas Seidl said that while McLaren didn’t start the season where they wanted to, he’s proud of the team’s improvement and is targeting a big year for the F1 team in 2023 under Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
McLaren started the season slowly in a step back from the momentum they’d built up under Seidl and Zak Brown, but they’ve hung on in the fight for fourth place and trail Alpine by seven points with just two rounds to go in the 2022 F1 season.
And despite many fans of the team being disappointed by their lack of competitiveness, Seidl insists he’s seen a lot of positives this season.
“We haven’t been where we wanted to be starting this era of Formula 1,” Seidl said, “but then obviously I see a lot of positives because looking at the direction of the of the team and seeing how they’re fighting back.”
McLaren looked well off the pace at the start of the season and trailed home 14th and 15th in the opening round of the season.
But aided by early unreliability and inconsistency from the frontrunners, they kept in the fight with Alpine following a strong Australian Grand Prix and a podium at Imola.
Though Alpine have definitely thrown points away, McLaren have also upgraded the car well and hauled themselves back into the battle for fourth on merit.
Seidl added: “Looking at the development we brought to the car which then put us in position again to get back into the fight for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship, and positives just gives me confidence that we will take another step again.”
Seidl wants big year in 2023
With momentum building across the second half of the season, McLaren have been hindered by a woeful year for Daniel Ricciardo and could be ahead of Alpine if Norris had had a teammate closer to his level.
But they’ll hope that’s the case next season, as the hottest junior driver joins the team in the shape of Oscar Piastri.
McLaren have also been developing a wind tunnel which they hope will bring further gains.
“As a team operation things like pit stops that’s another step forward again,” Seidl said,
“And there’s infrastructure projects which will be finished at some point next year, we have enough to make this next big step we’re looking for in order to fight these teams in front of us again.”
