McLaren knows it will have to "run at budget cap" in 2021 to compete for titles

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl knows his side will have to spend the full budget cap from 2021 onwards if they want to "fight the big ones" for F1 titles, as teams will be limited to $175 million per year to develop their cars.

The Woking-based team has enjoyed their best year in the turbo-hybrid era in 2019, running away in the midfield battle as they comfortably claimed fourth place in the constructors' championship.

Everyone at McLaren has been very outspoken on the need to build on last year to further close the gap to the top three teams, with the goal being to eventually to challenge for podiums, wins and ultimately titles.

With the drastic regulation changes inbound next year, Seidl knows this could be a key moment for his team to bridge the gap as a cost cap of $175 million will be introduced.

"The target for us is clearly to run at the budget cap," the German told Motorsport.com.

"There's a clear commitment that we will run at the budget cap because obviously that's the only chance to be able again to fight the big ones; you need to be on a level playing field in terms of budget."

New regulations typically come hand in hand with a shift in power. In 2014, the ever-dominant Red Bull Racing were suddenly being completely overshadowed by Mercedes, who have won every single championship since the introduction of the turbo-hybrid 1.6 liter V6 engines.

With this being said, Seidl still remains grounded, as the former Porsche man is very aware any team needs an incredible infrastructure in order to fight for titles.

"You need to be realistic to what is achievable," he continued. "Even if someone will give us for next year a hundred million more, you first need to be able to digest that and to put a structure in place that actually can produce more output in this short period of time.

"They [Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull] will have a head start, simply because of where they are right now, because they do a better job they have better methodologies in place, they have better processes in place and so on."