Daniel Ricciardo reported a bizarre loss of grip which prevented him progressing beyond the first round in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.
The RB driver believes the sudden change in performance was the same as that Lando Norris experienced in the final round of qualifying for the sprint race on Friday.Ricciardo’s Q1 elimination came as a blow after he finished a strong fourth in the sprint race earlier on Saturday. “It’s one of those things, the sport can change so quickly,” he told the official F1 channel.
“Honestly, I saw Lando’s lap in Q3 yesterday where straight away from the start of the lap you can see he was sliding his rears everywhere on the soft, he obviously struggled a lot,” said Ricciardo. “I honestly felt the same.
“Already on that last set, coming out of turn one, I started sliding. I had a wobble into seven then went wide and it was a spiral effect.
“But what was strange is it started already at the start of the lap. So it’s one of those things with this sport where it treats you nice until it doesn’t.
“We’ll look into it, but everything seemed fine approaching the lap. So, it’s one of those things, we just simply didn’t have the grip on that second set. As simple as that.”
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Ricciardo’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda reached Q3 and will start from 10th on the grid. Ricciardo started the sprint race from fourth.
“I honestly, genuinely think we’re not an 18th-place car,” said Ricciardo. “Hopefully we understand why sometimes the tyres behave as they do.
“I chatted a little bit to Lando yesterday, we didn’t go into detail, but I just said ‘it looked like you were on used hard tyres in your Q3 run’ It was as clear as day how bad it looked.
“So hopefully we can maybe get an answer on that. But we’re quicker than obviously what we show, we’ll just see what tomorrow brings.”
The RB driver picked up a three-place grid penalty at the previous round which will put him at an even greater disadvantage for the grand prix.
“We have the penalty so I think we’re dead last,” he said. “So a contrast to this morning.
“Obviously I’m not happy. But it’s also one of those things. This morning, that’s why it’s important I told the team, let’s at least enjoy this for the next 30 minutes, because this sport is, highly unpredictable.”
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2024 Miami Grand Prix
- McLaren had superior pace before Verstappen’s damage in Miami – Norris
- Sainz ‘struggles to understand’ why he got penalty when Perez didn’t
- Alonso’s unusual brake problem and more unheard Miami team radio
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- Norris expects more wins this year and believes “100%” in 2025 title bid
Osnola
5th May 2024, 9:22
During a season there are a lot of these kind of stories.
Are the tires always of the same quality or are there production differences between lots?
Something to look into.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
5th May 2024, 9:58
It’s definitely suspect, but with parc ferme lifted, you don’t know what set-up changes were done that might have had an impact on the tires.
I think it’s fair to rule out the driving itself being at fault, it seems quite unlikely for a driver to go from P4 to P18 in just a couple of hours on pure pace.
Sumedh
5th May 2024, 15:11
P4 to P18 is possible as the margins are very small and these cars and tyres are very sensitive to temperature. Having said that, hope Pirelli don’t have production issues.
Mr B
5th May 2024, 10:34
Whatever the reason may be we need it sorted.
F1 is a phenomenal engineering sport and the ability of the drivers to detect the smallest of changes in their machinery is incredible.
We need more talk about the brilliance of the engineering and the drivers and less talk about the tyres. The whole race revolves around tyres and their management, this can’t be right.
I want to see flat out racing from start to finish.
S
5th May 2024, 12:11
You’ll want to ask the teams to stop managing everything from the pit wall, then. The tyre management you don’t seem to like literally is the engineering. Teams design and build cars, and then apply the exact same management processes to operating those cars.
The best way to get more talk about the drivers is to eliminate the radio – let them do the tyre management themselves, without the guidance of the team in any way.
That has never and will never happen in F1. It doesn’t happen in any other form of professional circuit racing either.
It’s even becoming extremely rare in amateur-level racing now.
Mr B
5th May 2024, 18:29
You summed it up quite nicely by saying “stop managing everything from the pit wall then”. The pinnacle of motorsport shouldn’t be about managing everything, it should gladiatorial, the drivers when they finish a race shouldn’t look like they’re ready to do a photoshoot. Verstappen, when asked, said that he is managing the tyres from the out lap.
Maybe F1 is far more tactical these days, or maybe it’s always been that way and I have failed to notice.
It’s quite amazing when you think that a set of those softs was good for just 15 miles of outright performance on some cars!
Asd
5th May 2024, 13:44
I want more talk about the brilliant engineering of the tyres.
Honda
5th May 2024, 18:06
He had multiple soft runs before that. It was same for everyone and no driver was really confident including Max. SQ2 exit of Yuki was the same, he decided to do only 1push lap which was stupid idea and he struggled to put a lap. He also said he had no grip, ran wide. In fact, I would say it is great weekend for him. His P4 was not really representative. He scored 5 massive pts thanks to this unpredictability nature of tyres.