Losing podium better than retiring – Ricciardo

2014 F1 season

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Daniel Ricciardo says it was better to finish on the podium and then be disqualified than never to have got there in the first place.

He said his post-race exclusion from second place on his debut for Red Bull “puts a bit of a downer on what had been a brilliant day”.

“I did a good job in the car and I got to stand on the Australian Grand Prix podium,” added Ricciardo, “and no-one’s taking the sensation of doing that away”.

“What happens next is outside of my ability to control but honestly, I’d rather it went down like this than have retired from the race with a mechanical problem. I’ll take a podium and a subsequent disqualification over that any day of the week.”

Following a series of problems in pre-season testing, which prevented the team from completing a race simulation, Ricciardo said his car performed better than expected during the first grand prix weekend.

“The work we did in the winter targeted reliability rather than performance. It was only in Melbourne that we got the opportunity to start working on a set-up.

“The RB10 surprised us by being pretty competitive in the dry and very competitive in the wet. It’s going to get much better as we dial it in over the next few races and catch up with those teams that did more miles pre-season.”

“At the moment, we’re in the battle to be the second-best team,” he added. “Obviously that isn’t where we want to be but it’s exceeding our expectations of only a few weeks ago.”

“I think once we really get into the set-up of the car, we’ll be able to close the gap to Mercedes. Obviously they’re going to improve too but I think we’re in a good position to make bigger strides.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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33 comments on “Losing podium better than retiring – Ricciardo”

  1. Great debut at RB for ricciardo,i dont think he put a foot wrong really all weekend,shame about the dsq, but, like he says-it was better to get up on the podium and give the ozzy fans something to cheer about, than have a DNF after a few laps. Well done DR.

    1. I think he can only honestly say that because it was 100% Red Bull’s poor decision making, even if they did martyr his podium to add weight to a protest on the fuel sensors as a whole. If a driver had been DSQ’d because they did something on track or did some shifty blocking or something and then said this then I would lose respect for that driver because of the nature by which they got DSQ’d – if that makes sense?

      1. Yep, Totally with you on that.

  2. I didn’t think I would ever feel bad for a Red Bull being DSQ’d, but I did feel for Dan a bit there.

  3. Exception to Dan’s argument being in the event of a dodgy gear box.. DNF and a fresh box for the next race over finishing and the DSQ ;)

    1. I agree with his point though.. The feeling of standing on your home podium must be second to none. And with a pre-season like Red Bull had, that feeling must be a even greater feeling

    2. How would that be better? A DNF and a grid penalty.

      1. You get a free change if you DNF

        1. Can you provide a source for that? I don’t think that’s the case.

          1. @ironcito
            While it isn’t a source, Vettel had a gearbox failure in Silverstone last year, the next race he qualified 2nd and started from the same spot on the grid.
            So unless the rules have changed over the winter, then Ricciardo would not have had an additional grid penalty if he had, had a DNF because of a gearbox failure.

          2. Sure, Its part of Regulation 28.6 a)
            Unless the driver fails to finish the race (or is unable to start the race for reasons other than a penalty imposed by the stewards) the gearbox fitted to the car at the end of the Event must remain in it for the remainder of the six race sequence. Any driver who failed to finish the race at the first, second, third, fourth or fifth of the six Events for reasons which the technical delegate accepts as being beyond the control of the team or driver, may start the following Event with a different gearbox without a penalty being incurred.

          3. Huh, that kinda defeats the purpose a bit, if you ask me. Any driver outside the points can simply choose to retire and change the gearbox.

            Thanks for teaching me something new, though :)

          4. @ironcito

            Not quite,

            for reasons which the technical delegate accepts as being beyond the control of the team or drive

        2. It’s not a free change, it still counts against your season limit of parts changes. Go over that limit and you get a grid drop. They lowered the limits this year and that in combination with the less reliable cars means we’ll probably see many cars taking grid drops later in the year.

          1. There are no limit on the number of gearboxes though, just the number of races they have to be used for (with the exception of the clause I mentioned above).

          2. and the point I was making in my first post wasn’t entirely serious – just a bit light hearted :)

  4. I still have a feeling he’ll get it back, though the FIA will be determined not to set a precedence of uncertainty over the sensors.

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      20th March 2014, 23:05

      I doubt he’ll get it back, because the FIA have got some pretty irrefutable evidence that they were telling Red Bull during the race that they were running car #3 too rich, and exceeding the 100L.hour limit quite frequently.

      Red Bull chose to ignore them.

      1. @topher I think he will get it back, because the sensors’ accuracy and consistency will be thrown into doubt. If Red Bull can prove that, then ignoring it becomes a non-issue.

        1. The problem is that it wasn’t just Red Bull that had been warned. Other teams complied but Red Bull didn’t. Because of this, I don’t think he will get his points back because it would really be unfair to the rest of the teams. If others had to run on a reduced flow rate so the peak is staying under the limit, then Red Bull should do it too. Giving Red Bull a pass on this matter will open a whole new can of worms on how teams can exploit the rules and regulations.

      2. @tophercheese21 I think he will get it back, because the sensors’ accuracy and consistency will be thrown into doubt. If Red Bull can prove that, then ignoring it becomes a non-issue.

  5. Good positive attitude. Great to see that.

    Stay positive and it might be what gives Dan the edge over Vettel, who seems very dejected at the moment.

    1. Totally, I’ll have what he’s having.

    2. I think this attitude fits pretty well with his ever-smiling face. Some sort of optimistic “ALOTBSOL” attitude. Now if someone finds out what “ALOTBSOL” means here ?

      1. @gwenouille Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

        1. @psynrg Yes ! 25 points for you. Too bad we aren’t in Abu Dhabi !

  6. Those ominous drums you can all hear is the sound of Vettel picking up where he left off…

    1. Which would be what losing MGU-K and retiring after 5 laps? Because you can’t surely mean winning in Malaysia.

      1. @rybo Nope. It would be Ricciardo getting the mechanical gremlins this time… ;)

  7. GB (@bgp001ruled)
    21st March 2014, 1:17

    hope dan and rb get the points!!! but if not i think itd be fair: regs state that clearly (keith posted it somewhere!).
    but i think its a little bit nonsense what he says: if its about getting on the podium, caterham could run with the most illegal advantaged car, get to the podium and be disqualified afterwards. what would that be good for? oh yeah, the feeling, since noone here is running for points!!!!!!

  8. Behind that permagrin is a lot of steely resolve and a very impressive attitude. Nice camouflage! I’d love to see him beat Vettel this year in the same machinery. Especially if he’s going to repeat that loony chuckle when he finishes in podium positions.

  9. I won a trip to Melbourne (off to Malaysia so was going to miss this one) and we got a Paddock tour with DC and to watch quali from in the pit lane, at the spot just where the top 3 do the post quali photo- both were awesome of course!

    I saw Dan just briefly on Saturday morning and he said the car was feeling SO much better- I think he had a smile on his face :)

    We sat on the last corner (Prost stand) and as an Aussie that was the best experience to see the home crowd go nuts and “tripin’ balls” for Dan!! Utterly disappointed with the exclusion as were so many locals, to a rule that I don’t agree with at all and I don’t see why its needs to be there.

    That said rules are rules and they apply to all. RBR’s continuous bending of them or defiance to FIA’s guidance has bought this on- Dan would not have even known about it. I hope Dan gets the podium back and not sure if a possible outcome could be he keeps the drivers points but the team lose constructors points??

    Either way I think and hope he has shown some doubters he did deserve that seat after all, but needs to prove it more!

    Kvyat looked great and for Kevin Magnusson- WOW!!

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