Daniel Ricciardo’s classic response to embarrassing mistake at Saudi Arabian GP

After RB’s 40s pit stop, Daniel Ricciardo has joked his late-race spin in Saudi Arabia was because he “didn’t want the team to feel left out”.

RB’s disappointing start to the season continued at the Jeddah circuit on Saturday when neither Ricciardo nor his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda scored a point.

Daniel Ricciardo explains his Turn 1 spin in Saudi

Qualifying 14th for round two of the championship where he was half a second down on his team-mate, Ricciardo’s chances of working his way into the points were undone by a 40-second pit stop that RB put down to a “problem with the tyres”.

However, a spin at Turn 1 late in the race didn’t help him either with the Honey Badger crossing the line in 16th place.

He joked he spun to make the team feel better about their earlier mistake.

“I didn’t want the team to feel left out,” he said with a smile.

Asked if it was a case of losing concentration, he replied: “The spin? Yeah, maybe. I stayed… I don’t know. I did just take a bit too much kerb, which caused the spin. I’m not intending on taking that much kerb.

“You could say just probably a little bit of frustration, maybe on my part. But of course, I’m not trying to spin. So yeah, I don’t know. No excuses. But doing some work. I’ll use that as an excuse.”

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Daniel Ricciardo felt ‘the limit of the car’

But calling his Jeddah weekend a “painful three days”, Ricciardo revealed RB had found some limitations with their new RB01 over the course of the weekend.

“We found a few things,” he said. “We simply don’t have everything functioning at 100 percent. So we see a few flaws, honestly, with the car.

“Like just when it comes to producing efficiency and everything, just a few things didn’t quite add up. Bahrain I knew that it was more me but [in Jeddah qualifying] when it kind of plateaus and the others keep improving, it’s also a bit of a sign.

“I could feel that that was the limit of the car. We did find some things afterward. But then you’ve got parc ferme, [though] to be honest, even if we didn’t have parc ferme, it’s probably nothing we can fix in 24 hours.

“So I’m sure a few things would go back to the factory and come back with a fresh car in Melbourne.”

Ricciardo is hoping for better at the next race, which is his home race in Australia.

“I’ll obviously put the weekend behind me and just push the team hard,” he added.

“Already [after qualifying] I stayed quite late to try and help everyone find the issues and yeah, just up to me now to keep on ’em. I know they want it as bad as I do.

“So I’ll make sure that we have a good package into Melbourne and let’s say my season will start there and kick some ass.”

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