McLaren looking for qualifying speed: 'Makes life so much easier'

Lando Norris is having an excellent season so far and is fourth in the championship. Yet his weekend in Spain was a bit disappointing with a ninth place in qualifying and an eighth place in the race, his worst results of the season.

Accept and move on

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl thinks there could have been more in the car this weekend. "Unfortunately we didn't manage to finish higher [in qualifying], despite having a car that had more potential," he told F1i.com. "But it's important to just keep going."

Still, the German believes Norris has made the most of it and won't dwell on it too much more. "In the end we have to accept how this weekend has gone. Lando has had an incredible start to the season with unbelievable performances, so there's no need to pep him up. He's fine and I'm sure he'll strike again with us in the next few races."

Looking on the bright side

Despite the somewhat disappointing performance, we have to look on the bright side. "He was able to move up one position on a circuit where it's just hard to overtake," said the team's chief executive. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished in sixth place in Spain. "It's important that we were still able to score 12 points in a race weekend where Ferrari were quite strong".

Getting stronger on Saturday

According to Seidl, there is still a lot to gain for McLaren this season especially in qualifying. "I think it's clear that we have to try to finish higher on Saturday," said Seidl. "At the end of the day, it makes your life so much easier on Sunday if you do your stints in free-flow without pressure behind, which we've already managed to do in some races this year. It's clear, that's the goal. We want to finish on Saturday where the potential of the car is."