Daniel Ricciardo has avoided having to take a grid penalty for a power unit change this weekend following his problem in final practice.
A new engine, turbo and MGU-H was fitted to Ricciardo’s car following the failure he experienced in final practice. That moves him onto the second of three example of each he is allowed to use this year.
He did not have to take a new energy store, which would have moved him beyond the maximum allocation of two per season. However Ricciardo admits penalties are now inevitable for him later this year.“I think it means at some point I’ll start in the last corner at one track,” said Ricciardo, who also retired in Bahrain with a power unit problem.
“Unfortunately it’s a little bit familiar territory. We’ve had our ups and downs with this the last few years. It’s not new to me but after winter testing we didn’t expect to be here in race three with already the issues in Bahrain and this morning. The winter testing looked a lot more positive from a reliability standpoint.
Ricciardo said his “window of optimism” over whether Renault will get on top of their reliability problems is getting smaller and he hopes it will not affect their championship fight.
“From a driving point of view you still go out and you just hope nothing goes bang. But I guess mentally, knowing we’re going to have penalties at some point…
“We’re not really there yet on Ferrari’s pace and I’m not thinking about the championship. But if we then put ourselves in that position then it would be hard to take the penalties that will be upcoming.”
2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
14th April 2018, 16:52
Ricciardo will mention this as a “performance clause” in his negotiations for 2019. But he’d better has something secured in another big team (if Kimi retires, big if; or if Bottas is sidelined) or he could end up in a midfield car.
Nitzo (@webtel)
14th April 2018, 17:44
@omarr-pepper
Did you mean Red Bull or someone else ? :-P
new
14th April 2018, 19:48
He doesn’t need to get out of his contract early.
Andre Furtado (@f1andy83)
14th April 2018, 17:19
I can’t say enough how this power unit rule is bad for formula 1. Drivers should never be punished because of components that should be used to the maximum to provide a better spectacle. Want to cut costs. Make the power unit simpler and don’t put a limit on the number of components. You will get more viewers, more money and a better sport.
kpcart
14th April 2018, 17:26
yeh, but this is F1, never has and never will be the best form of motorsports, even its “pinnacle” tag, no one really believes.