Daniel Ricciardo’s hopes of a strong result in his home race suffered a major blow when he crashed during qualifying.
His Red Bull snapped out of control at turn 14 and went backwards into the barrier, leaving him unlikely to start higher than tenth. A fan at the track captured this new video of the crash.
“I don’t crash into the barriers often and the last place I want to do that is at home,” said Ricciardo.
“But I feel I crashed for the right reason, as I was basically pushing and trying to find the limit and these things happen, so let’s say I’m not disappointed by the approach, it was just more of a frustrating outcome, starting tenth instead of being under the top five.”
“I feel for the mechanics because they’ve had a long week and now they’ve got a long night ahead of them.”
He added there was one upside from his Saturday. “I saved a set of ultra-softs in Q2, I know that not everyone in front of me has, so maybe that gives me a chance.”
2017 F1 season
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- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
Strontium (@strontium)
25th March 2017, 14:00
The rear wings this year stick out and are a lot more vulnerable. In high speed shunts like this it probably makes no difference, but low speed accidents it could cause cars to be out with just rear wing damage. Is it possible that teams may eventually decide to use removable rear wing, akin to how front wings can be replaced.
Gabriel (@rethla)
25th March 2017, 15:41
Its not as easy since DRS is build into it.
Strontium (@strontium)
25th March 2017, 15:44
The old front wings (2010 and earlier) were adjustable from in the cockpit and were still easily replaced. I’m sure they could find a solution
anon
25th March 2017, 18:10
@strontium, as most other posters have noted, any accident that causes enough damage for the rear wing to need to be replaced is likely to be one that will have caused enough damage to put the driver out of the race anyway.
For example, the rear crash structure projects virtually as far out as the rear endplates do, so any crash which damages those components is likely to damage that as well, which would be grounds for retiring the car.
Similarly, the gearbox and rear suspension components are also likely to have been damaged in the process – so although it could be done, I would assume most teams don’t believe it is worthwhile because the car will usually have suffered enough damage to put it out of the race anyway by that point.
George (@george)
25th March 2017, 15:51
@strontium
I doubt it, any contact with the rear is usually race ending because of suspension and/or gearbox damage. I don’t think the chance of just breaking a bit off the rear wing would be worth weakening it with a quick release mechanism. If anything, if you’re just backing it in at <10mph you'd probably be better off having a stronger wing than being able to replace it. Then again, this is F1 so you never know.
graham228221 (@graham228221)
25th March 2017, 17:06
Rear wings were wider than this before 2009, and I don’t recall them getting damaged more often. Any incident that will damage a rear wing to the point of needing replacing is likely to be pretty terminal anyway.
They can be replaced, I can recall several times when teams have done so, but it can take almost a minute or so.
Steve Smith
25th March 2017, 14:15
Where’s the video link?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
25th March 2017, 15:40
It’s right there at the top of the article underneath the headline.
Joao (@johnmilk)
25th March 2017, 15:42
I don’t see it as well. Are you on a mobile
Steve Smith
25th March 2017, 16:07
Ah, maybe it doesn’t show on mobile phones. Will try on a different device!
Johnny H.
25th March 2017, 16:14
The link on mobile and desktop works just fine here
Mad Eric (@mad-eric)
26th March 2017, 4:29
Isn’t visible on latest Firefox
Arnoud van Houwelingen
25th March 2017, 14:32
I think this will mean a gearbox change so 5 place grid penalty for Ricciardo
AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
25th March 2017, 14:42
The car is a mess. As Marko stated- unpredictable. For now the same category as Lotus E22 and SF16-H.
Slowhands (@slowhands)
25th March 2017, 17:25
I guess there’s one in every crowd… (pick your adjective/epithet)
Why would a racing fan be APPLAUDING when a great driver and local hero loses control of his car and spins into the barrier on his quick lap?
Is this guy so deep into his own parallel universe that this requires a caption competition?
xcm
25th March 2017, 22:11
Same reason people clap when a waitress drops a plate or cup…
Why does it offend your sense of justice so?