Ricciardo ends “pretty painful weekend” in a lacklustre P16

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be high up on Daniel Ricciardo’s list of “pretty painful” races to forget after his embarrassing sixteenth-placed drive ended with an “odd”, self-inflicted final lap spin.

Following a subpar effort in qualifying yesterday, in which Ricciardo was again out-qualified by his teammate, knocked out in Q2 and set to start from P14, there had clearly not been a change in tune for the Australian as the lights went out. 

“It was a tough race and overall, a tough weekend, which is very frustrating,” Ricciardo said.

“I’m staying optimistic though, as I know we have some positive signs and we just need to polish our package up.”

Off the line, Ricciardo lost out to the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.

He stuck with the German for the first few laps, however, there was a clear pace difference between the two cars and Hulkenberg set off for an eventual points finish.

When the Safety Car was called on Lap 7, prompted by Lance Strolls Turn 22-23 incident, Ricciardo’s pitstop from P14 was where things started to go wrong for the ‘Honey Badger’.

Nico Hulkenberg passes Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the Saudi Arabian GP. Image: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images.

Just as almost every driver capitalised on the cheap SC pitstop, Ricciardo followed suit, however, an extremely slow stop in which the team “had a problem with the tyres” saw him losing far more than he gained.

The #3 RB car rejoined the snake of cars behind the Safety Car in last place, set for a long stint with his elected hard compound tyre.

“During the Safety Car time, when almost everyone pitted, we had a slow pit stop,” Ricciardo said.

“And a few laps from the end, I made a mistake and hit too much kerb in Turn 1, which caused a spin.

“That kind of summed up the weekend.”

He barely moved up the order across the remaining 40 laps, overtaking Valtteri Bottas on Lap 24, and inheriting one place from the Sauber driver’s teammate, Zhou Guanyu who was also held up by a slow pitstop.

On Lap 32, Ricciardo had caught up to the Kevin Magnussen-led DRS train, trailing Logan Sargeant by around eight-tenths. 

He stuck within the Williams’ DRS range for three laps before the interval between the two grew beyond a second.

With just one lap to go, Ricciardo was just 1.2 seconds behind Sargeant and closing in, however, within a matter of meters, that soon blew out.

Coming out of Turn 1, Ricciardo made a simple driver-error mistake, spinning after taking too much kerb.

The Australian avoided any damage, instead getting right back on track to cross the finish line 13.8 seconds behind Sargeant.

Daniel Ricciardo during the Saudi Arabian GP. Image: Zak Mauger / LAT Images.

Ultimately, the timesheets reflected that Ricciardo finished 7.4 seconds behind Magnussen who was demoted after being penalised by 20 seconds for two separate incidents.

Ricciardo finished out of the points, taking the chequered flag in P16.

“I’ve driven a long time, I know when things don’t feel quite right.

“On one hand, it’s nice to find a few things, but, on another, it meant that it was a pretty painful weekend.

“The only thing that’s probably keeping me a little bit optimistic now is that we can find a few things.”

Following the conclusion of this morning’s race, RBs remain one of four teams yet to score any points in the standings.

The result doesn’t bode well for Ricciardo who is using his 2024 season with RB as a pitch for the 2025 Red Bull seat.

With both Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez doing relatively well in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ricciardo will have to step it up a notch as he heads to his home race here in Melbourne.  

“It feels like it’s been a pretty slow start to the year, but it’s been two races.

“I know how quickly this thing can turn around.

“We’ve got a week off now, so Melbourne, we’ll be better, I know we’ll fix it and have an equal playing field and a strong showing.

“There will be a big push from everyone to get it right and make sure we have a good package.

“I’m excited to go back racing in Melbourne, so let’s get ready for it.”

The on-track action at the Australian Grand Prix kicks off with FP1 at 12:30 PM on Friday, March 22.

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