Daniel Ricciardo Was Highly Critical Of ‘Lame’ F1 Rule That Ruined His Race

Posted on November 6, 2023 | by Charley Williams Ruin your own day? Fine. When someone else ruins your day? Feel the wrath! Daniel Ricciardo went through a rollercoaster of emotions on the opening lap of the Brazil GP.  Daniel’s car was hit by a tyre that flew from Alex Albon’s Williams following a collision with Kevin Magnussen into Turn 1, unfortunately for  Ricciardo, it was unavoidable and caused damage to his AlphaTauri. Oscar Piastri had also been caught up in the mess of the debris and was on his way to retire the car. But wait – then a red flag was called, and it was the perfect opportunity for the team to fix the car and get both drivers back on track. Both cars were miraculously fixed in time, and they were ready to race. However, the FIA confirmed that any cars worked in their garages under the red flag rather than the fast lane must restart the race from the pitlane rather than the starting grid – and because they pitted on the lap before the red flag was called, they would be an entire lap down from the rest of the field ???? Daniel Ricciardo was particularly critical of this rule, as the race ended up as more of a test session for the pair rather than an opportunity to gain points – from no fault of their own. He told the media, including The Race: “Was obviously frustrating… you look back at those things, and it’s nice it didn’t hit me, so then I was like, ‘hopefully, there’s a red flag, and we can get back in the race’. “So we got to the pits, we heard there was red, so the team did a great job fixing the car. We’re ready to go, and then they tell me Oscar and I are starting a lap down. “And yeah… all the excitement you have to race again just gets completely zapped out of you. There was not a green flag racing lap completed. “I don’t know how we started the race a lap down, so that’s really frustrating. Something a bit lame in the rules. I think my argument is that if 15 cars had our issue today, are they going to start 15 cars in the pitlane a lap down and put five cars on the grid? No.” He continued: “I think they can use common sense and be a bit more open-minded. Frustrating that they ruined our day from the beginning.” ???? Do you think this is a flaw in the rules that needs to be looked at by the FIA?