Ricciardo was ‘thinking of the viewers’ during ‘dull’ Abu Dhabi finale

2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo admitted he wondered how the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix looked on television while he was stuck in fourth place early in the race.

The Red Bull driver, who retired before half-distance with a hydraulic problem, added to the criticism of the racing at the Yas Marina circuit.

“After I’d fended off Kimi [Raikkonen] early on, I was driving around and just about hanging on to Seb [Sebastian Vettel] in front of me, but probably didn’t have the pace to follow him in his dirty air and pass him,” Ricciardo told Red Bull’s website.

“Fourth looked like the best it could have got, and I was genuinely thinking about the viewers, because it was pretty dull,” he said. “The combination of the track layout there and how hard it is for these cars to run close to each other, it just didn’t work. Definitely wasn’t much of a spectacle.”

After the race Lewis Hamilton called for changes to the Yas Marina track to aid overtaking and designer Hermann Tilke hinted a “small” alteration could be made in future.

“I don’t 100 per cent know why the track doesn’t produce great racing,” said Ricciardo, “but I think that when you have a slow corner leading onto a long straight like we do there in a couple of places, and when the DRS zone starts – in my opinion anyway – too late, then you end up with these static races where not a lot happens.”

The changes to the aerodynamic regulations for 2017 have also been blamed for creating more processional races.

“The cars this year – wider, bigger tyres, more disturbed air behind – were always going to make this one tough,” he added. “It was worse than we feared, most probably. Not getting any points didn’t help my mood, to be fair.”

2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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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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    25 comments on “Ricciardo was ‘thinking of the viewers’ during ‘dull’ Abu Dhabi finale”

    1. Good for you Dan. I love this sport for some reason,but it’s not the scintillating racing. Something should have been done years ago (small front wing)

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        4th December 2017, 21:17

        2014 – Make the front wing small
        2017 – Make it bigger!

      2. Indeed. And a pox on Seb for saying that it’s ok to have boring races.

        1. Well I don’t think he was promoting that all races be boring…just that if one happens once in a while we the fans shouldn’t freak out. I doubt he himself wants boring races.

        2. Vettel was being optimistic as we all are.

    2. Could have parked your dead car in the middle of the straight and brought out the Safety Car then…

      (Disclaimer: above suggestion made in jest).

      1. Good one!

    3. I know the idea received almost universal disapproval, but… Yas Marina would be absolutely perfect for a sprinkler system. I’d go so far as to say I’d be happy to see them installed and used if it meant I never had to watch another dry race there.

      1. good shout

      2. I am against any form of idiotic shows in Formula 1, but i will make an exception here (since this circuit breaks any border of hopeless racing). For Yas Marina, i have 2 scenarios:
        -Championship is not decided yet: just do a dry race, since it will be exciting anyway
        -Championship is decided: before the race, the newly crowned champion spins the wheel of fortune at which lap the sprinklers will go off…..

        Tadaa…. Abu Dhabi will never be boring anymore…..

        1. Instead of installing sprinklers or other such nonsense at Yas Marina, how about, you know, just not racing there anymore? There are plenty of other options in countries that don´t stone people to death for odd reasons and that have a public capable of affording the race tickets in places where people actually like F1.

    4. How about instead of enlarging the DRS zone, if a car is under one second ahead it automatically deploys a parachute? I’m sure that would be entertaining to watch.

      1. I vote hood mounted paintball guns. A few strategic options: could pepper the car in front to distract the driver into making a mistake; or could unload on a select tyre to reduce their grip.

    5. ”The combination of the track layout there and how hard it is for these cars to run close to each other”
      – It’s much more about the latter, though. The circuit or circuits in general, don’t really need changes, but rather the cars regarding how they’re designed Aerodynamically.

      1. Absolutely agree. Please watch the GP3 and F2 races from Yas Marina this year. They were very exciting.
        I don’t think the track layout helps at all, but current F1 cars just don’t work here.

        1. Absolutely @nickwyatt the Sunday (sprint) support races were pretty dexent. Saturday’s races with compulsory pit stops not so good. So the circuit can work well for some categiries.
          Last time I went I watched Alonso lose a world title by following a Renault for lap after lap. Great facilities. Not so great for F1 racing.

    6. I wish I’d watched it on the telly instead of spending about £1300 flying out there for the race.

      1. You were really there? How was the atmosphere?

        1. Yas is flash. But in my opinion doesn’t really create a great atmosphere to be honest. Nothing like say Silverstone, or Mexico, or Montreal. I think maybe fans are expecting a dull race. This year they certainly got one!

    7. How thoughtful of you, Daniel
      *rolls eyes*

    8. Daniel Ricciardo admitted he wondered how the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix looked on television while he was stuck in fourth place early in the race.

      I’m surprised he could stay awake . . .

    9. There was an article on an Australian website this year speaking to engineers who said something along the lines of ‘we manage the races to be boring

      in other words if the races were exciting, they wouldn’t be doing their jobs properly.
      This has happened to other series where they use pit communication-driver coaching/ car updating/computing management etc
      The article spoke how it was killing most forms of motorsport and one of the exceptions was MOTO GP
      Honda’s Marquez said he is against the idea (of pit communication) as the ability for rider to make their own decisions “is one of the nicest things”
      “For that reason the teams pay us to be the fastest, to defeat every time and for me one of the things that I don’t like in F1 is most of the times the teams have too much effect on the race”

      1. This is an interesting insight. Thanks.

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