McLaren F1 boss Andreas Seidl says his team has a clear plan for when to switch its focus to its 2022 car, but the timing of the shift is flexible and dependent on the direction of this year's developments.
After two rounds, McLaren current leads F1's mid-field battle, thanks in large part to strong drivers from Lando Norris in Bahrain and at Imola where the Briton snatched the final spot on the podium.
McLaren intends to fight to hold its own among F1's top-three teams, although Ferrari and AlphaTauri have also positioned themselves early on as potential suitors for P3 in the Constructors' standings.
However, next year's regulation overhaul will inevitably compel teams to channel all their development resources at some point towards their all-new 2022 designs. But the timing of that switch will also likely impact their current car's development rate and performance relative to its rivals.
©McLaren
"I obviously don't know what Ferrari is planning, but I think from our side, we have a clear plan of what we want to do this year and when we want to switch to next year," Seidl said, quoted by Motorsport.com.
"Of course it's a bit of a live decision, not just depending on how competitive you are at the moment compared to Ferrari and AlphaTauri.
"It will also depend on if you actually see a lot more potential within some more runs, for example, in the wind tunnel, because you see some promising directions, which then could lead you to say, 'look, let's invest two or three more runs because we could actually get quite a bit out of it for this year?'
"Or if it goes in the other direction, you could say, 'it's pretty much done, you need to invest a lot more energy and time in order to make further steps', it could lead you to aborting it even earlier than planned
"So, I would say we have a clear plan, [and] the flexibility to adjust. But I think it's more depending on the potential we see with the directions."
McLaren won't sacrifice its entire 2021 season for the benefit of next year's charger, but Seidl is looking first and foremost at the bigger picture for his team.
"Of course, we want to do good this year," he added. "We want to keep this positive momentum up. But at the same time, the journey we are in is clear. We want to get back to the front.
"In order to do that, we want to use also this opportunity of the new regulations to come into place next year."
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