Seidl honest: 'There was nothing we could control'

McLaren has a good chance of finishing third in the Constructors' Championship this season thanks to Lando Norris' excellent year. The English team is currently on a par with Ferrari, but team owner Andreas Seidl feels that McLaren has made some great improvements.

While Daniel Ricciardo is mostly battling with himself for now, Norris is doing surprisingly well. The driver is regularly mixing it with big names like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and has already taken three podiums this season. That promises something for the second half of the season.

Seidl, however, is mainly focused on the battle with Ferrari and expects a lot from the upcoming races. "I think it’s an open battle as we’ve seen throughout the first half of the season," he told Racer.com. "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 that in qualifying because that’s something we didn’t expect."

McLaren hopes for third place

The team boss therefore sees plenty of opportunities. "I look at the first races this season on similar tracks where we couldn’t go their pace, so that speaks also for the good work people have been doing back home on the development side; continuously improving the car, which is encouraging for the second half of the season."