McLaren F1 Surprised Themselves with 4th in the 2019 Championship

The 2019 Formula One season was supposed to be a year of redemption for the McLaren F1 team, with two new drivers at the wheel. However, it seemed that the Woking outfit underestimated themselves, according to team principal Andreas Seidl. He admitted that McLaren never expected to fight for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship in 2019, much less secure it.

After Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne left the team, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris were roped in to  replace them. The veteran Spaniard and the Belgian were only able to get McLaren F1 as high as 6th in the championship, but Sainz and Norris did much better.

Sainz’ individual score of 96 points, was much higher that the 62 points that were accumulated by the team in the 2018 constructors’ championship. Eventually, Sainz finished in a career-best sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, while Norris scored 49 points in his rookie campaign.

Seidl admitted that they were pleasantly surprised to have such a strong season, especially considering that they had a number of disappointing campaigns lately.

“When I signed for McLaren in November last year, I honestly didn’t expect us to fight for P4 in 2019,” Seidl told Crash.net.   “Where we were competing this season in the field is very tight which means each race we had to fight incredibly hard for points to climb up in the championship and nothing was secured until the end of the season. 

According to Seidl, the impetus to continue their good form was the dreadfully boring French Grand Prix. The pace of both cars at the circuit was enough to convince him that the team were genuinely in contention for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. Another welcome bonus was the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Sainz’s unexpected podium finish secured that fourth place. Now the team head into 2020, high on confidence and eager to take the fight to the top 3 teams.