McLaren and Ricciardo reflect on a tough race for the team

Monday 29 August 2022

F1 | Belgian GP | McLaren and Ricciardo reflect on a tough race for the team

McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidel and driver Daniel Ricciardo reflect on the Belgian Grand Prix, and how having to use an old rear wing affected their below par race performance.

It was not a good weekend at the office for McLaren, following the announcement of the Daniel Ricciardo’s departure from the team at the end of the 2022 season.

Pre-race, Ricciardo was seen sitting by the side of the grid at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, headphones on, going through his usual routine; looking relaxed but pumped for the race ahead, and unaffected by the decisions made. 

Despite starting seventh on the grid however with the Aussie, the results didn’t come. After a problem was discovered on the new rear wing of the 33-year-old, the team were forced to use an old wing, that had an affect on straight-line speed and traction.

One minute they were in the points, the next minute they were out of the top 10. By the chequered flag neither of the McLaren drivers finished in the top 10; Lando Norris was in P12, and Ricciardo finished in 15th, with zero points for their efforts.

McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl explained the obstacles they faced:

“On Daniel’s side, we had an issue with the latest rear wing and we only had two for this event here, so we had to go back to an older rear wing - which meant slightly more downforce and therefore a bit less top speed, which wasn’t what we wanted to run, clearly.”

Seidl went on to say that while there was a air of sadness in deciding to part ways with Ricciardo at the end of the year, morale hasn't been affected.

“I think going into this weekend, doing the announcement, of course, myself, everyone as a team felt sad. But at the same time, it was important to get the message out before the weekend so we could also focus in on these last nine races of the season.

“Daniel is very experienced, we are very experienced as a team. We are fully committed; Daniel’s side, our side of the team, to give it all again together and try to finish our chapter on a high.

“So I’ve not seen, let’s say, events from before going to the weekend that had any effect on the outcome of the race weekend.

“I think if I look at Daniel’s performance this weekend, the performance of the team for example also in terms of pit stops today, everyone was fully focused, gave it all, we simply didn’t have a car that was quick enough.”

It was noted by Formula 2 driver, Ayumu Iwasa over the weekend that there were at least three different types of asphalt on the track since the safety improvements were made, stating that it could make a difference in traction and prove difficult to get the right balance on the car. Could this have been a contributing factor in the McLaren cars' performance too?

“Independent of that [rear wing change], I think in general for both cars today, doesn’t matter which downforce level, unfortunately with these conditions today we simply didn’t have the pace, struggling with traction for example out of Turn 1 especially and therefore we will never be in a position to overtake, even lost some positions, got overtaken, just not a good day for us. It was a surprise that we were lacking performance that much today.

“The lack of traction we have example out of Turn 1 meant we were pretty much stuck all the time, or vulnerable to get overtaken. Therefore we were never really in free air, which then I would say compromised performance or the lack of performance we had anyway, even more.”

Starting on the grid in P7 and P18 respectively (after grid penalties were implemented), both Ricciardo and Norris made up positions in the opening laps, though Ricciardo was soon overtaken by a charging Verstappen in his Red Bull, and Williams driver Alex Albon, as he found good form this weekend.

Ricciardo stated he had already thought he would struggle this weekend in the first and third sector, with the old rear-wing he was using. In cleaner air he had more speed, but when stuck behind other cars, he couldn’t make the package work. The Australian was also lucky to not be collected in the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso on Lap 1.

“We obviously started there [in seventh] and was able to get Albon I think at the start,” said Ricciardo, “then it was a bit of a mess with Alonso and Lewis and I was trying to go here and there, and obviously Lewis was noticing the issue and I just kind of got a bit, whatever, in that situation and Seb [Vettel] got me.

“But we still obviously had Albon, which we thought that was a kind of critical one. A couple laps later, he sailed past on the straight.

“I think I had speed to use in the second sector. But then first and third, even with DRS I couldn’t pass. So [a] pretty long and frustrating race; it just felt like we were just waiting for a mistake.

“I said on the radio, obviously I’m trying but unless they make a mistake in front, it’s literally impossible to pass.

“So I think while these tyres were fresh, that they could use the straight line speed and just make the gains they needed. We were just too slow on the straight, that was the biggest thing. We simply just weren’t quick on the straights.”

Riccardo went on to explain about using the old rear wing, and the costly affects: 

“We had to put a different wing on because our race spec one had a bit of an issue. So we knew today was probably going to hurt us on the straights just with more drag.

“I mean, a little bit unfortunate because after the issue yesterday it’s not the wing we wanted to run, but we were forced to, and we knew today it was probably going to hurt us. I think in clear air we were quicker, but we never had clear air because if I had it, if I didn’t have a slipstream someone would pass me and if I was right behind someone, even with DRS, we couldn’t make an overtake.

“The good thing about this year is you can race closer, but the bad thing is the tow effect is smaller. So actually on a track like this it I felt like it made overtaking more tricky.”