Daniel Ricciardo doesn’t believe Valtteri Bottas should get a penalty for the incident between the pair of them during second practice in Bahrain.
The Red Bull driver complained on the radio after he had to take avoiding action when the Mercedes got in his way at the exit of turn four. But Ricciardo, who picked up a grid penalty during practice at the previous run, said the stewards shouldn’t get involved in the incident.
“I don’t think any of the drivers agreed with my penalty last week so I don’t want to start that game. I believe he wasn’t told on the radio so it’s probably not his fault.
“It was frustrating, of course, but I try not to get too fired up. It’s only practice. It probably compromised our low-fuel run.”
Ricciardo felt he had gone the wrong way on set-up in after ending the second practice session sixth, fractionally slower than team mate Max Verstappen.
“This afternoon we made some changes and it was’t as good as the morning so we’ll go back,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll go completely back to the morning but try to find a happy medium.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
6th April 2018, 19:14
“I don’t think any of the drivers agreed with my penalty last week so I don’t want to start that game. I believe he wasn’t told on the radio so it’s probably not his fault.”
– Agreed, but this is what I’ve never really understood: Why do the drivers have to rely entirely on their teams on informing them via team radio whether someone on a fast lap is approaching close behind or not when they have mirrors in place for that purpose already? What’s the point of having mirrors if you aren’t going to use them anyway, LOL? Yes, I’m aware that following the Canadian GP last season Sainz said that it’s difficult to see from the mirrors, but still, it shouldn’t be that difficult when it’s just one car behind.
jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
6th April 2018, 23:43
It’s not so much seeing the car, but knowing if they are on a fast lap or not. No way of seeing that in the mirrors
Dave
6th April 2018, 19:42
I don’t bloody care about Ricciardo getting angry.
joe jopling (@jop452)
6th April 2018, 20:06
This is a practice session, so why should either Kimis wheel, which didn’t come off or the Bottas incident carry any penalty…..if the wheel had come off or there had been a collision, that is different….we want drivers to practice, not to hide in the pits
nase
6th April 2018, 20:29
@jop452
The wheel incident has to be penalised (albeit only with a fine) because there exists a zero-tolerance policy against releasing a car onto the track in an unsafe manner. The goal is to prevent this from happening altogether, so the penalties have to be directed against the cause, not the effect.
Don’t, ever, send a car onto the race track with a loose wheel, that’s the message Race Control is sending to the teams, and rightfully so.
As for the Bottas incident, I agree. That was clearly unintentional, so it shouldn’t affect the rest of the weekend.
kevin
7th April 2018, 4:20
I think the penalty for dangerous release isn’t warrented. If a car has to stop on track and can’t continue, isn’t that penalty enough? Ask Haas if they didn’t feel like parking on track was a penalty for their mistakes. They are coming up with ways to cut costs in the future, but are fining teams after they already had a penalty by stopping on track. I don’t get that.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
7th April 2018, 11:16
Kevin,
I certainly think the team should get a penalty for a dangerous release. The pit lane may not be full speed like the track. But there are loads of peple there, unlike the track. If a wheel rolls off after a car suddenly pulls out of the pits, it could potenteally cause some serious harm harm to someone. For things like this, even though the driver already had suffered as they have to stop, it is perfectly understanderble why the team is fined too.
Althugh this didn’t happen with the Ferrari or both Hass cars, something could have gone very wrong in the pit lane. And as these these things could possibly happen, that is probably why the teams get fined.
nase
6th April 2018, 20:34
Whoever said Danny Ricciardo was over his Aussie GP penalty, and that his sulky comments must’ve been recorded before the race, was apparently wrong. Same bitterness, same old irrelevant argument.
I have nothing against him, but he needs to shut up about his penalty.
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
7th April 2018, 0:37
Why Nass?it was a Rank penalty that cost him a podium