Ricciardo drops five grid places after gearbox change

2017 British Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo has been hit by a five place grid penalty for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix after Red Bull changed his gearbox.

After discovering a problem with the gearbox in Ricciardo’s RB13 after Friday practice, Red Bull were forced to change to a new unit.

As Ricciardo’s gearbox had not completed six consecutive race weekends, the FIA stewards confirmed that the Australian would be hit with a five place grid penalty.

Ricciardo joins Valtteri Bottas in receiving a five place gearbox-related drop, while Fernando Alonso has amassed 30 total grid place penalties for tomorrow’s races following a number of power unit component changes.

Ricciardo was sixth quickest in final practice, 1.5s off the pace of Lewis Hamilton.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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15 comments on “Ricciardo drops five grid places after gearbox change”

  1. Good news for Bottas, he may be able to start from 5th then.

  2. Time to update my predictions!

  3. Having strong training sessions so far I really hope for a good result for the Hulk!
    Starting from P4 tomorrow?

  4. Mercedes really need to stop this: first they clearly sabotage Bottas, to help Hamilton at his home Grand Prix and now they’re even doing it other teams. What a joke!

  5. Feel sorry sorry for ric he looks like he will be starting last

    1. Don’t feel sorry for him he is a very good driver, he likes this circuit and you can never tell whats going to happen.

  6. Karma. He has hogged all the luck at Red Bull against a much faster teammate. Ricciardo is taking on the 2015 Kyvatt mantal at RB. Everyone knows who the star performer is at RB and he is not Australian.

    1. You are absolutely correct. There should be an investigation into how Ricciardo got access to so much luck with out anyone noticing. I think Liberty should take over the distribution of luck and make the whole process of it’s distribution more transparent.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        15th July 2017, 23:27

        Ricciardo has not had “so much luck”. His team mate had just had worse. Yes Ricciardo was rather lucky in Baku but several of his other podium finished were very good and we have no evidence how good Verstappen may have been. Ricciardo had had a DNS in Australia and a problem in Russia that made him retire. Just because 2 retirements isn’t 5 doesn’t mean Ricciardo has been having the “luck” at Red Bull. They have both been unlucky, but Verstappen more so. And as we don’t know most of Ricciardo’s podiums could be his brilliant performance rather than luck.

        These 2 drivers have been together on track for a total of 175 out of 561 laps this year. That is hardly anything. Especially considering one of the races they both finished was Monaco which has the most laps. The only 2 races they both finished were China and Monaco. Verstappen was better in China. Certainly. In Monaco, Verstappen looked to have the edge over most of the weekend. Even if Ricciardo had a bit of luck in the race, he made the most of it and performed brilliently. From what we saw that race, I would say they were about even. Those 2 races add up to 134 laps. They were about as good as each other in one and Verstappen was better in the other. Then there have been the other 41 laps they have done. This is what I added up from all the other races until one or other of them had to retire. It is true that Verstappen has generally had better starts, but 2 races and and the rest of these laps is nowhere near enough evidence for us to be able to say Verstappen is the faster or better of the 2 drivers which is what a lot of people now seem to be saying. I believe Verstappen will have plenty of races where he will outperform Ricciardo, but as a driver on the whole, I think Ricciardo is the better driver in the team.

        If we can decide how good Verstappen is when he’s barley had any time to race against Ricciardo, it would be a bit like instantly deciding that Bottas was better than Hamilton if Bottas was clearly better in the 1st 3 races of the season. I know this didn’t happen but that is about the amount of time we have had to compare Verstappen and Ricciardo on race day which is where performance matters most. And that is not enough to confirm who is better.

        1. OMG I thought my post was silly enough to be picked as a send up of MarkPs post. Maybe I should have said that in future all drivers should be checked on the Luck-o-Meter before before the’re allowed out on track.

        2. You should try and add up the points Ricciardo took by luck…. all these drivers DNF’s dropping away in front of him.

          His Austria P3 was well earned all the rest was by mere luck or strategy.

          Spain > Bot, Rai, Ver DNF-ed in front of Ric
          Monaco > thanks to good strategy, Bot and Ver where put behind Ric
          Canada > Ric overtook Rai after the start, Vet and Ver dropped away in front of him
          Azerbeizjan > was all about luck, about very single driver dropped away which made a free pass for Ric
          Austria > Ric overtook Rai and defended his position in a perfect way

          So in general Ric overtook Raikkonen twice and overtook Stroll in Baku. Starting on the grid from P6, 6, 6, 10 and 5.

          1. Oh okay no worries not only will we have a Luck-o-Meter to stop excessive luck being given to drivers. We must get a strategy evaluation app so we can stop intelligent well though out winning strategies from being implemented before they can wreak havoc on on on……non strategy?

          2. Bloody hell, luck, what is the saying…
            “I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
            And the only thing that matters is points, who has the most points in the RB team, it aint Max.
            However it would be great if both drivers get out there and mix it with Merc and Fer.

          3. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
            16th July 2017, 12:17

            He certainly has been lucky, but it is a mix of skill and luck that gets him these results. Whenever he gets an oppertunity, he had made the most of it and has usually been very impressive. The main point I was trying to make is that even if Verstappen was ahead often at the time he retired, we have no clue what could have happened later in the race. Ricciardo may have been good enough to get past Verstappen later. We just don’t know.

            But sorry @johnrkh, i did drag out that reply a bit too much.

  7. Just wish RB could give both drivers better kit. Having both drivers at the pointy end would make the Merc / Fer scenario a lot more interesting.

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