McLaren Formula 1 boss Andreas Seidl is remaining "realistic" about the team's prospects for 2021, despite praise from Lewis Hamilton.

This season, the Woking-based squad is switching back to Mercedes power for the first time since 2014, the same combination which took Hamilton to his first championship in 2008.

And commenting on their change, the 36-year-old expressed hope his former team could potentially join Mercedes and Red Bull at the front of the grid.

“I’m really happy to see the McLaren so close, particularly with how they’ve got changes and they’re using our engine next year,” he was quoted by RaceFans.

“It’s great to see that, at the end of the year with a good car, so that they can perhaps be in the fight with us next year. If that makes it a three-way team championship. I think that would be amazing for the fans to see.”

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However, in response, Seidl admitted such aspirations were perhaps premature.

“It’s obviously nice for all of us at McLaren that Lewis, who started his career at McLaren and won his first title with McLaren, is respecting and watching the progress we make as a team,” he said via GPFans.

“But as I have said before, we have a clear picture and a realistic picture of where we are as a team.

“The guys in Brixworth are obviously very experienced,” the German added referring to the Mercedes engine division.

“There is obviously a bit of history between the guys at Brixworth and McLaren which helped to get going again, but it is also clear it is a different partnership compared to the past.

“There is a Mercedes works team in Formula 1 and we are a customer, but I am very happy with everything I have seen so far with the integration of the Mercedes power unit.

“It is going really well and we should be in good shape from the first race onwards.”

Instead, McLaren sees more potential from 2022 onwards, when an all-new car design offers an opportunity to really shake up the order.

And now former driver Carlos Sainz believes the team is on course to capitalise.

“I feel like this team has come forward a long, long, long way since that test in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2018,” he told Motorsport.com.

“The group of people here is as strong as it can get. There’s still a bit of a long way to go on car performance. We’re still losing one second to Mercedes per lap.

“But at the same time, I think the team is forming really nicely into 2022, which is the big regulation change, that's when I think this team is going to be ready to hit the ground running.

“The team will have a much more specific and established structure. The people here I think are going to be a lot more established.

“It’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future, I think.”

Currently, Sainz is settling in at his new team Ferrari, completing his first test last week.

But asked by Spain's AS if the Scuderia was similar to his beloved Real Madrid, he also brought McLaren in on the football analogy.

“It’s one way of saying it,” he said. “But McLaren is Barça, which is also a very good team to be on.

“It cannot be compared because, in addition, both are in a restructuring [phase] to try to dethrone Mercedes in the future.

“But they are the two best teams in history and when you go from one to the other, it means you are doing something right in Formula 1.”