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McLaren’s Hungarian Grand Prix prospects were “pretty much over” after a nightmare few laps that included Lando Norris “letting down the team” with “probably the worst start in my life”.
Strong results, aided by opportunism, in the first two rounds of the 2020 Formula 1 season at the Red Bull Ring meant McLaren was second in the constructors’ championship heading to Hungary.
It expected to struggle more on a high-downforce track but was “very encouraged” to get both cars into Q3 again, only for its race to fall apart in a matter of laps.
Norris lost track position in the opening seconds of the race with a launch that was decent initially but on the damp circuit that transitioned to aggressive wheelspin in the second phase.
The hero of third and fifth place finishes in Austria fell from eighth to 13th by Turn 1, then lost another place on the exit of the corner.
That consigned him to a race in the midfield at the notoriously difficult to overtake Hungaroring.
“Maybe the pitstops weren’t amazing, but they didn’t cost me anything,” said Norris to Sky Sports F1 post-race.
“I think I was the one who let down the team in terms of probably getting the worst start I’ve ever got in my life.
“I just wanted to go forward, and when you try and go forward in the wet you go backward, so it’s just as simple as that. I got a bit eager.
“I just screwed everything up and it’s such a difficult track to overtake on, I couldn’t do anything more after that, so I tried coming back, but P13 was the best I could do.”
Team-mate Sainz fared better at the start and inherited eighth place from Norris, running between Sergio Perez’s Racing Point and Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault.
But he fell out of the points in the early round of pitstops when drivers switched to slick tyres.
He was held in his pitbox because of the stream of traffic coming through the pitlane, and that dropped him behind Alex Albon’s Red Bull and Ricciardo.
Sainz was also fortunate to escape without damage when Williams released Nicholas Latifi into his path and Sainz’s front wing hit Latifi’s left-rear tyre.
Had Sainz held track position through the pitstop phase he would have then inherited a place from Perez, who went off-track briefly.
McLaren is aware of its need to improve its pitstop procedures as Sainz has now suffered twice in two races, although on this occasion it seemed more a matter of unfortunate timing than team error
So instead of challenging for a net sixth place, Sainz had to scrap to even make it back inside the points at all.
Team principal Andreas Seidl conceded that the bid for strong points was “pretty much over after those first laps”.
“In terms of the timing of the pitstop, that was at the right time, coming in with a lot of other cars and we actually had a good pitstop, but unfortunately there were five/six cars coming as a train, and we simply couldn’t release from the pitstop position,” he said of Sainz’s predicament.
“By this he dropped back many, many positions, which then compromised unfortunately his race.
“It is a shame because I think again we had the pace to fight with the Ferraris, with the Renaults and with at least one Racing Point, so we missed out on some good points.”
McLaren is aware of its need to improve its pitstop procedures as Sainz has now suffered twice in two races, although on this occasion it seemed more a matter of unfortunate timing than team error.
Sainz inherited a place after the flag when Kevin Magnussen was penalised post-race, and that extra point is the difference between McLaren and Racing Point in the fight for third place in the constructors’ championship.
Seidl had been in positive spirits after Saturday’s qualifying session, remarking: “We expected to struggle compared to our competitors at the moment and that’s why it’s actually quite encouraging to see where we have been today in qualifying and how close we were to the Ferraris and to the Red Bulls.
“It’s simply another confirmation that we are heading in the right direction.
“At the same time when you see the gap to the Mercedes cars we still have a lot to do, but we have a clear plan of how we want to close this gap over the next years and simply have to keep our heads down and keep going.”
But by Sunday afternoon Sainz had a more cautious tone, indicating that McLaren also has short-term issues to address as well.
“The balance was not ideal in the race,” he said.
“The balance hasn’t been ideal the whole weekend.
“Now it’s a matter of analysing it and seeing where we can come back stronger at Silverstone.”
