LONDON • McLaren are still years from closing the gap to Formula One champions Mercedes and runners-up Red Bull despite enjoying their best season since 2012, according to team principal Andreas Seidl.
The former champions reclaimed third place overall after the Abu Dhabi season-ender last Sunday.
“We need to stay realistic. Despite the good result we have this weekend and, despite the great outcome for us in the championship side with P3, I think we know exactly where we are,” Seidl said.
“There’s still a huge gap to the cars in front, especially the Mercedes.”
Mercedes won both titles for an unprecedented seventh year in a row, scoring 573 constructors’ points with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton providing 347. McLaren had 202, behind Red Bull’s 319.
McLaren have not won a race since 2012, Hamilton’s last season with them, but have climbed back from ninth with Honda in 2017.
“The team this year have produced a very competitive car, a great step forward compared to last year,” added Seidl, who joined last year. “Still, we know what the gap to the Mercedes is. It is not something we will close from one year to the next year. We still know that we have a lot of deficits within the team, in terms of organisation, in terms of infrastructure, which we need to close first.
“It will take time. But I’m confident that if we do the right things on the team side, we can close these gaps in some years.”
Seidl expected next year, with the cars largely the same before major change in 2022, to be another battle between four or five teams for best of the rest behind the top two.
McLaren have Australian Daniel Ricciardo, a race winner with Red Bull, joining from Renault to partner Britain’s Lando Norris after Spaniard Carlos Sainz leaves for Ferrari.
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown believes that their drivers’ line-up next year will be the most exciting in Formula One.
Norris and Sainz finished fifth and sixth in Abu Dhabi, which enabled the team to secure an estimated extra €5.5 million (S$8.9 million) in prize money after climbing from fourth on a day when they also announced a major investment – reported to be around €200 million – from American consortium MSP Sports Capital.
“Lando has come off a great first year and is now really coming of age and Daniel is a seven-time winner,” said Brown.
“I think we have the most exciting line-up in F1 next year.”
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE