McLaren boss Andreas Seidl is keen to focus solely on next year’s car as soon as possible in a bid to catch Formula 1’s top three.
The British team has been the surprise of 2019, making big gains after a string of tough years and currently sitting fourth in the Constructors’ standings, 39 points clear of Toro Rosso.
However, the healthy gap is putting McLaren in a tricky situation of wanting to increase attention to next year without risking that position.
“The key now for the second half of the season will be when to really get to the point where we can switch full focus to next year’s car,” Seidl explained via F1i.com.
“Obviously results like Hungary help us with that decision because one thing is also clear with the performance: the gap to the front is still huge and we clearly have to target that to make the next step next year.”
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What is already in McLaren’s favour, however, is that early preparations for 2020 are already vastly ahead of where they have been in recent years.
“For us, where we think the next step will come with car performance is that we have started this time – and it is the first time for a while – with a normal timing of doing a car,” the German chief continued.
“We started straight after winter testing with an initial concept phase of next year’s car, which is different to previous years.
“And that fact together with having a clear technical director in place gives me a lot of hope. I am optimistic we can make the next step.
“But we need to be realistic. As I have said many times, there is no magic. The gap to the front is still huge but the aim is to get somewhere in-between next year.
“If you look at the lap times we are somewhere between 1-1.5 seconds away from the top three teams, and our target is to jump somewhere in-between that.”