McLaren disagrees with Hamilton: 'Good that he says that, but we have our goals'

With the switch from Renault to Mercedes, McLaren seems a potential danger for the upcoming season. The British team were long in the midfield, but in recent years they have been able to get more and more out of their car, starting the path towards the top. The change in engine supplier should help, although they do not have high hopes for next season.

Lewis Hamilton said at the end of the season that McLaren would be a team to be reckoned with, but team principal Andreas Seidl says otherwise. "It is of course good for us that Lewis, who started with us and became champion with us, has so much respect for the team and also keeps an eye on us with the progress we are making at the moment," Seidl explained to MARCA.

No wins for McLaren?

"But I have said before that we have a realistic and clear objective around our position with the team." That position, according to the McLaren team boss, is not that they are going to achieve victories. An improvement on 2020 does seem realistic though, as that season they recorded two podium finishes with Lando Norris in Austria and Carlos Sainz in Italy. Joining them next year is Daniel Ricciardo, who brings with him plenty of wins and podiums as experience.

"There is an official Mercedes team in Formula 1 and we are a customer team, but I am extremely happy with how everything has gone so far. It is going very well and we will probably be in good shape at the start of the season. We have seen a lot so far around the integration of the Mercedes engine and I am very happy with how it is going so far," Seidl concluded.