Seidl: McLaren aims to run at budget cap in 2021

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl says that his team are planning to hit the budget cap in 2021 so that they have the best chance of fighting with the top teams. 

As part of the regulations overhaul coming into force in 2021, there will be a budget cap of $175 million introduced. This aims to combat the dominance of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull and tries to level the playing field for the smaller teams.

McLaren saw a resurgence in form during 2019, and the team see the upcoming rules changes as a way to 'leapfrog' themselves up the grid. They have also invested heavily into a new simulator and their own wind tunnel in Woking. Previously, they had been working from the old Toyota wind tunnel in France.

Seidl told Autosport: "The target for us is clearly to run at the budget cap. There's a clear commitment that we will run at the budget cap because obviously that's the only chance to be able again to fight the big ones; you need to be on a level playing field in terms of budget."

The team has gone through a major restructuring of its leadership in the past few years, with Seidl being the final piece of that puzzle. However, McLaren will not increase their spending for next season so that they are in a better position for 2021.

"You need to be realistic to what is achievable. Even if someone will give us for next year a hundred million more, you first need to be able to digest that and to put a structure in place that actually can produce more output in this short period of time.

"So this is why I'm not too worried about '20, also not too worried about the quotes I'm reading at the moment that it will be the most expensive year ever for the top three teams.

"In the end, there's a limitation placed on the CFD side, on the wind tunnel side, so there's only so much you can do, and aero will also be in the future the key performance differentiator.

"So they will have a head start, simply because of where they are right now because they do a better job they have better methodologies in place, they have better processes in place and so on.

"So I'm not too worried about the budget gap not being in place in '20."