McLaren need to be 'on their A-game' to beat Ferrari for P3

In Hungary, McLaren failed to score any points as Lando Norris was knocked out by Valtteri Bottas, while Daniel Ricciardo also failed to finish in the points due to damage on lap 1. Despite the poor race, team boss Andreas Seidl remains encouraged by the team's progress.

“I think it’s an open battle as we’ve seen throughout the first half of the season. I have to say, [Hungary] didn’t go to plan but there was nothing we could control but for us it was encouraging to see that we could actually battle Ferrari on a track like this because that’s something we didn’t expect when coming here", said Seidl to Crash.net.

“I will look at the first races this season on similar tracks where we couldn’t go their pace. So that speaks for the good work people have been doing back home on the development side in continuously improving the car which is encouraging for the second half of the season.”

Ferrari a strong competitor

After its worst season in over 40 years in 2020, Ferrari looks to be coming back stronger this season. Charles Leclerc almost won the British Grand Prix and Carlos Sainz finished fourth in Hungary. For McLaren to beat them in the battle for third place, they need to show their best side, says Seidl.

“But it is also clear that Ferrari is obviously a very strong team, very experienced, it has everything in place that it needs to have a strong second half of the season, they have two top drivers which is why we need to be on our A-game in all aspects of going racing if you want to compete with them but again as we have seen in the last two and half years now within the team, it’s encouraging and I think we have everything in our hands to battle it out until the last race", said Seidl.