McLaren delighted with ‘unexpected’ F1 podium at Monaco

The Woking-based outfit anticipated it could be in for a tough weekend, fearing its 2021 F1 car would struggle relative to its main competitors around the slow, twisty streets of Monte Carlo.

But another exemplary performance from Lando Norris, coupled with a non-start for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and DNF for Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes, paved the way for the Briton to score an unlikely podium.

“I would say we definitely didn’t expect that in terms of pace, that we could be so close to Mercedes and Red Bull, and also Ferrari,” said Seidl.

“From what we’ve seen at the beginning of the season at the first races, we were always struggling in the low speed sections, so that was really encouraging to see this weekend.

“So a really big thank you to the team back home in engineering and production to give us this car for the weekend. They did a great job over winter with this car and they kept pushing, delivering the upgrades. Very happy with that.”

It also marked an important result in terms of the championship for McLaren, who have come away from the weekend maintaining its slender advantage over Ferrari.

Due to Leclerc’s race-ending failure, McLaren only lost three points to Ferrari with its former driver Carlos Sainz taking second ahead of Norris.

“For the championship, how the race played out was obviously a good outcome for us,” Seidl added.

“Seeing the strong pace that Ferrari had on Thursday and also on Saturday, it was high risk to lose a lot of points to them.

“Obviously we benefitted from the bad luck that Charles had, and that’s something you don’t wish for any of your competitors in that way.

“As we always said, it’s important to always be there when opportunities are there and that’s what we managed to do together with a flying Lando.

“I think in terms of strategy the team did a great job, it was spot on. Lando was doing a great job and in the end it was a well deserved podium.”