Seidl not ‘worried’ about Ferrari, ‘just realistic’
Andreas Seidl
Closing the gap in the points in Turkey, Ferrari may still be P6 but Andreas Seidl says they are now in the fight for third in the Constructors’.
Ferrari recorded its best result of this season at Istanbul Park with Sebastian Vettel on the podium and Charles Leclerc P4.
The Scuderia’s points tally increased to 130, which means they are now just 24 behind third-placed Racing Point.
McLaren, who are P4 on the log with both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris scoring in Turkey, have 149 points.
“It was obviously great for us to score this result because it kept us in the fight in the Constructors’ Championship, which is good,” Seidl told RaceFans.net.
“But we definitely do not have the third or fourth quickest car at the moment in this battle.
“And with what we have seen also from Ferrari, one more good result and suddenly the fight is between four teams for this third, fourth, fifth and sixth.”
The German, though, isn’t “worried or concerned” about Ferrari, rather he’s “just realistic”.
He added: “I know what a team like Ferrari, with all the resources they have, can do and it’s not a surprise that they are coming back during the season.
“We never underestimated the power that Ferrari has. They have two great drivers, also, and obviously a great team. So that’s the reality we’re in.
“It’s simply important to focus on ourselves, to see that we extract the maximum from what we can do with everything we have.
“We have a competitive car which is a great step forward compared to last year.”
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What a race that was! 🏁 @Carlossainz55 finishes the #TurkishGP in P5 with @LandoNorris in P8. 👊🧡
Stellar drives by both of our guys in the trickiest of conditions. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/M23AMtnb1r
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 15, 2020
Hoping that McLaren “can keep this battle alive until the last race” of the season, Seidl concedes that McLaren may have let themselves down with their strategy on Sunday.
“If you just look at the race, obviously it feels a bit of maybe even a missed opportunity because with the pace we had in the car and being so close to the Ferraris in the end, maybe if we would have pushed more as a team together with Carlos, maybe it would have been possible to score even more points,” he said.
“But at the same time, it was a tricky decision to make because it was also very much in terms of tyre life. So you can also quickly end up with zero points. Overall I think it was well-managed by the team together with the drivers and happy with the outcome.
“What was impressive was simply that the pace we could show, especially on the intermediate tyres, the car was somehow switched on. As soon as you had a bit of free air, Carlos had it or Lando especially, then it was actually a very surprising, competitive pace.”
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