Seidl: McLaren has positive momentum

New McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl believes McLaren has gathered some positive momentum after its start to the 2019 season. 

The Woking squad currently sits fourth in the world championship, five points ahead of Racing Point as the 'best of the rest' squad.

McLaren endured a tough 2018 season, that saw it slip to the back of the field towards the end of the year, as it shifted development and focus onto the 2019 car.

Seidl, who was present in Barcelona for the first time as an official McLaren senior staff member, says it was an easy decision to join the team after spending time in the World Endurance Championship. 

"I'm a competitive guy, I'm a racing guy and obviously straightaway once Zak started to talk to me last year it felt very, very appealing to join this great team with all that history," Seidl said.

"And after seeing all the division and the plan the shareholders and Zak were having for this team in the next two years, it was an easy decision to make."

Ambitions are high, but McLaren must stay realistic

After the team's strong start to the year, Seidl thinks it is an encouraging period for McLaren, who is aiming to bounce back to the front of the grid after a number of tough years in the midfield.

"Of course the ambitions are high, my personal ambitions. But the same is the case for every single member of the team.

"At the same time, you need to be realistic as well. There's some hard work ahead of us for McLaren. The positive thing is there's a lot of positive momentum at the moment within the team.

"I think all the changes that Zak’s initiated over already last year are paying off already. And now it's down to me, together with the team to just keep going that direction and step by step, one step closer to the top guys."