‘Arsehole’ Daniel Ricciardo fires sarcastic message direct to FIA

Daniel Ricciardo was not pleased with the FIA, the AlphaTauri driver ending up a lap down after becoming collateral damage in a shunt at Turn 1.

After Charles Leclerc crashed out on the Brazilian Grand Prix formation lap due to a hydraulics issue, further drama followed on the opening lap as Alex Albon clipped Nico Hulkenberg, sending Albon into Hulkenberg’s Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

That was Albon and Magnussen eliminated, with Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri innocent casualties of the debris as the Safety Car came out before the race was red flagged.

Daniel Ricciardo gets sarcastic with FIA

That pause in the action allowed for frantic repairs on the Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri and Piastri’s McLaren, but while these efforts were successful and the pair raced on, they did so a lap down on the rest of the field, due to them pulling into their respective garages on the first lap.

And this decision did not sit well with Ricciardo.

“Just because I’m an arsehole, thanks FIA,” said Ricciardo over team radio after parking his AlphaTauri in the pit lane post-race.

Ricciardo finished the race P13 ahead of Piastri only, ruing the unfortunate events as he saw a potential solid haul of points evaporate. Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda claimed two points for a P9 finish.

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Expanding on his frustrations post-race, Ricciardo called for the FIA to be more “open-minded” and address this ruling that left him a lap down, saying he was “exceptionally fast” with the performance at his disposal in the AT04.

“I think firstly, it exposed a flaw or something in the rules because I didn’t feel like we ever did a racing lap and then you already start the race a lap down,” Ricciardo told Formula1.com. “So Oscar and I fell victim to that today.

“I think, to me, it’s like okay, the two of us today, but if 15 cars had damage and had to do what we did, are they going to start a race with 15 cars a lap down? I don’t think so. So I think they need to be a bit more open-minded. So that was frustrating.

“The incident itself, obviously I was at the back so I saw quite early the smoke and the debris and let’s say the chaos. And then I just remember seeing like a wheel, I guess the tyre came off the rim, just kind of like frisbeeing through the air and started coming closer and I think even my instinct was to duck my head and I didn’t feel anything hit me, so I was like. ‘Alright, cool’.

“And then after Turn 1 I checked the mirrors and I could see the rear-wing was damaged, so I figured the tyre got the wing.

“But then we got the news it was red flagged, so I was like, ‘Aright, the team can hopefully repair it’ and they did a great job. And again, we were ready to go on time, but then they told us we were a lap down, so really frustrating.

“I think on top of that, we were I want to say exceptionally fast today. We couldn’t always show it because we were a lap down and just having to play let’s say the team game of course, not getting in the way of obviously Yuki’s race or even other cars around us.

“But the times that we did have some clear air, especially towards the end, there were a couple laps where I was able to show my speed, and frustratingly fast.

“So I feel for the team, like me, my championship, I’m not in a championship hunt, but I’m here to help the team get now seventh in the championship and I felt I could have heavily contributed today.

“So just a shame the rules are written the way they are at the moment and doesn’t seem to be any flexibility.

“We could have got a lot of points. Our pace spoke hopefully volumes that we could have moved through the field quite a bit.”

With two rounds of F1 2023 left to go, AlphaTauri are seven points behind Williams and that P7 spot in the Constructors’ Championship.

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