Autosport (UK)

MCLAREN UPTURN DUE TO CIRCUIT, NOT UPGRADES

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Mclaren team principal Andreas Seidl has tempered expectatio­ns for the rest of 2022, despite a strong showing in Australia.

He believes that Lando Norris’s fifth-place finish, crossing the line just four tenths ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, was due to Albert

Park suiting the MCL36 rather than any lasting upturn in form.

The team-mates found extremely similar pace in the race, enough for Seidl to say both had maximised the car. But he conceded there was nothing left in the tank to truly take the fight to the Mercedes duo that finished 25 seconds up the road.

“We’re obviously very happy with the result,” said Seidl. “It’s mainly down to three reasons. We brought some small upgrades here to the car, which worked. The track layout suits our current package, a fluid layout. And we learned about the car in Jeddah and applied that here. That put us in a more competitiv­e position. Heads down, let’s not get overexcite­d.”

Similarly, Norris cautioned that the result “might be as good as it gets for a while” after both cars made it into Q3 for the first time this season and the team jumped from eighth to fourth in the standings, where it ended the 2021 campaign.

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