Seidl is the ideal guy for McLaren. ''They can go back to the top''

As the new team boss of McLaren, Andreas Seidl fell with his nose in 2019. After years of setbacks, 2019 was not so bad and McLaren was 'best of the rest'. Coincidence or did Seidl have a hand in this right away?

The ideal leader

Since the arrival of Seidl, peace has returned to McLaren. The team has decided to ride with Mercedes engines from 2021 and with drivers such as Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and, from 2021, Daniel Ricciardo, the race stable has young, fresh drivers in its ranks again with enough passion to race for the team from Woking.

It's something Seidl enforces, according to stories of other drivers. ''He has both feet on the ground and is actually looking at things. He knows how to deal with people and he knows how to get the most out of his people," said Timo Glock, who was able to work with him briefly during his time at BMW.

McLaren back to the top

"Andreas is very accessible. You can have a good laugh with him, but he also lets you work very hard. He's a normal guy and he really doesn't change because of circumstances in the factory. He just goes ahead and does his thing. Everything you saw in 2019 was because of him,'' Glock says, who dares to go even further.

''Under his leadership McLaren can return to the top three. Maybe as early as 2021 with Mercedes engines. He's already done a great job by returning to the top five so quickly and now he's the right man to lead McLaren to the top'', concludes Glock in the Formula 1 podcast Starting Grid.