Andreas Seidl: McLaren in trouble
The high temperatures in Bahrain have posed some issues for McLaren, particularly with the cooling of the brakes, which affected Lando Norris.
The Bahrain tests officially concluded, and teams were able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the new cars. One week before the opening round on the Sakhir track, Lando Norris and McLaren were faced with a brake problem.
Indeed, with the high temperatures in Bahrain, the team suffered from a failure in the brake cooling system of the MCL36. With the absence of Daniel Ricciardo on track, it was Lando Norris who completed the most laps in the McLaren, or at least the most laps possible. Limited by this technical issue, the British driver still managed to cover 200 times the 5.412 km of the Sakhir circuit over the three days.
Although the team managed to obtain the necessary parts for a repair, the problem quickly resurfaced on Saturday afternoon. The team’s director, Andreas Seidl, spoke about the issue.
« The test definitely didn’t go as planned, reveals Seidl. « We had an unexpected problem with the front brakes, which limited our running time. Especially when it comes to long stints. It put us in a really uncomfortable position. However, I believe we were also able to do a lot of positive stints, we were still able to extract quite a bit of performance from the car. We were able to make some improvements to the car. So that’s a positive, he explains.
A battle against time
« But we clearly have a problem. And we are simply racing against time to implement the improvements and fix this problem, something we will be able to do partially but not entirely, laments Seidl. « Now we simply hope that the improvements we make for next week will solve the problem and that we can try to bounce back. We have made progress, but time constraints force us to make limited changes, even with significant support from the factory, continues McLaren’s team principal.
« But I am confident, we will be able to solve this problem. And then we will talk about performance again. » Andreas Seidl says.
After successful tests in Barcelona, McLaren was unable to carry out all the necessary tests in Bahrain due to the limited number of laps. However, Seidl puts things into perspective and highlights a certain level of productivity from the team and Lando Norris.
As for the question of the teams’ level, Andreas Seidl agrees with the rest of the paddock in saying that it is still early to determine a specific order. However, Ferrari seems to him to be in great shape, and he also has no doubts about the condition of Mercedes.
