Hungaroring, Sunday 19 July
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, and Team Principal Andreas Seidl after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
CARLOS SAINZ, #55
| Started | 9th | |||
| Finished | 10th | |||
| Fastest lap | 1m19.457s on lap 67 (+2.830s, 6th) | |||
| Pit-stops | 2, lap 3 [Intermediate/Medium] (7.2s) and lap 40 [Medium/Hard] (3.2s) |
“Overall a tough day today. I was very happy with the start which left us in a strong position before the first pit-stop, however we lost several positions during the stop due to the traffic release, which I think cost us a lot in the overall result. I managed to fight back into the points, so I’m happy about that, but definitely not the best Sunday because I feel we deserved a bit more. I’m looking forward to improving the car balance and coming back stronger at Silverstone. Thank you to the whole team for the effort during this first triple-header. Let’s keep pushing!”
LANDO NORRIS, #4
| Started | 8th | |||
| Finished | 13th | |||
| Fastest lap | 1m19.945s on lap 42 (+3.318s, 8th) | |||
| Pit-stops | 2, lap 4 [Intermediate/Medium] (3.7s), lap 35 [Medium/Hard] (3.4s) |
“Tough result. I wouldn’t say tough race. The hardest part was my start – I had a good launch but then in the second phase I just had so much wheelspin and it all went wrong. That was a mistake I made. I haven’t done that many starts in the wet and I’ve never had a great one. I’ve been preparing for it, but I just couldn’t quite get it right again.
“The rest of the race was just trying to recover from that. It’s such a difficult track to overtake on, I couldn’t really do too much else. I think the pace was good, and the car was pretty good to drive. I just had a difficult start on probably one of the most important tracks to get away quickly, so on to the next one. It’s my first proper big mistake of the season. I need to work on it and come back stronger. A big thanks goes to everyone in the team, who’ve worked hard to put both Carlos and I in the best possible positions over these opening three races. I’m looking forward to putting this race behind me at my home track over the next two grands prix.”
ANDREAS SEIDL, Team Principal
“First of all, a big thank you to the entire race team for completing our first triple-header of 2020. We really pulled through as a team and we’re travelling back to the UK with 40 points in the Constructors’ World Championship. Unfortunately, after two very good weekends, our race here in Hungary was compromised from the start. Lando had an issue off the line that lost him a lot of positions, but he kept fighting and made his way back up to P13. With Carlos, we were unlucky. He lost several positions after his pit-stop when the pit-lane was blocked with other cars, not allowing him to leave the pit-box. It took a great drive from him to make it back to P10 after that. Both drivers fought excellently, giving it their all right to the end and not giving up.
“We now go home and will take the next few days to reset and analyse in detail what happened over these first races. To complete three races in three weeks has required a huge effort from the team, and I’m pleased with how we’ve risen to this challenge. The team, both at the track and back at home at the MTC, has worked hard to maximise our performance, and it’s thanks to their efforts that we come away with such a strong points haul. We’ll take away a lot of positives from this opening stint, but also know there are areas in which we must improve. We’ll use the time we have before going to Silverstone to do just that.”