McLaren: 'Safety of our pit crew is important for our team'

The new rules on pit stops introduced by the FIA have not been well received by Red Bull and others. The FIA says it is to improve the safety around the pit stops. Mercedes is of course happy because it can defuse Red Bull's qualities during the pit stop a little bit.

However, we haven't really heard the other teams talking about it yet. McLaren has now spoken out though. What do they think about it?

"The safety of our pit crew is one of the most important things for us as a team", McLaren team boss Address Seidl told us. Motorsport.com. "It's such a competitive battle in Formula 1. So I think it's good that there is further clarification of what the FIA expects in order to operate within the rules." So safety is paramount at McLaren.

Where for Red Bull it can cause changes in the speed of the pit stops, this is less true for McLaren according to the German. "I don't think it will change much for us. We always had a more conservative approach to avoid putting anyone from the pit crew in danger. It's important to anticipate problems or safety risks, rather than always waiting for something to happen and then reacting. So we are happy with this."

"We always did it in a way where we pushed the limit of what was permissible, but where we did put the safety of our pit crew first", Seidl concludes. McLaren is therefore in favour and believes that the safety of the pit crew and therefore the drivers is the most important thing.