10 years ago: Ricciardo gets first F1 win
In 2014 fans were cheering as Daniel Ricciardo celebrated his memorable maiden F1 win and 10 years on he and a new Aussie star will be again chasing success in the Canadian Grand Prix on the same weekend.
As the build up to what should be an exciting Canadian Grand Prix from 4am continues, reflect on Ricciardo’s unforgettable and dramatic first win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with AUTO ACTION’s review by Dan Knutston.
Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull put a stop to the crushing domination by the mighty Mercedes team by winning the Canadian Grand Prix.
“I’m a grand prix winner!” Ricciardo exclaimed after his maiden victory. “We achieved a great result today with first and third – so let’s enjoy it – but we will still have some work to do also.
This will motivate the guys to work even harder and find even more, so l’m sure it will keep coming even better for us at the next few races.” Nico Rosberg, who led most of the 70 laps in his Mercedes, wound up second, while Ricciardo’s Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel took third.
Not only had Rosberg and teammate Lewis
Hamilton won the first six races of the season, they also had led every single lap. They led the first 45 laps in Canada as well, and then Felipe Massa made a footnote for the history books by becoming the first
“other driver and car” to lead this season. He had had his Williams out in front for two tours, and then Rosberg was back in first for laps 48 to 67.
But Rosberg’s Mercedes was suffering technical woes of the same sort that put Hamilton out of the race after 46 laps. Four drivers were in a fight for the lead with Rosberg leading Sergio Pérez (Force India), Ricciardo and Vettel.
How AUTO ACTION celebrated Daniel Ricciardo’s maiden F1 win.
They would be joined by Felipe Massa (Williams) who had worked his way through another fighting group consisting of Nico Hülkenberg (Force India), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Massa and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari.)
Ricciardo, who had passed Vettel after putting in some very quick laps during the second round of pitstops, now focused on Pérez and he snatched second from him with five laps to go. Auto Action asked Ricciardo how he did it.
“I was trying the whole time I was behind him,”
Ricciardo said. “I was looking for opportunities. He was driving well and wasn’t making any mistakes, and realistically I needed a bit of a mistake from him because they were just getting off the corner so well.
“But then he got quite close to Nico and perhaps just overshot the braking a little bit in the last chicane. I managed to just stay with him on the exit, get the tow and use the DRS.
“I knew we were strong braking into Turn 1; we were really quick into there so once I had the outside line free I just basically went in and made it work. That was the place I wanted to do it – but I was trying all the time and it was just then that the opportunity came – but I wasn’t really holding back!”
Now just Rosberg stood between Ricciardo and victory.
“The race came to life at the end,” Ricciardo said.
“Mercedes had their issues and it enabled us to lose on them. We had a good fight with Pérez and ve were really struggling to pass them. I then set my gights on Nico and then a couple of laps to go just round myself in the right spot to get the DRS?
The race started and finished with huge accidents. when the red lights went out, Hamilton, who had gualified second, had a good getaway and pulled alongside polesitter Rosberg. As they steamed into the first corner Hamilton was on the outside.
Rosberg locked his brakes, which forced Hamilton to run wide and that allowed Vettel to slip through into second place and push Hamilton back to third.
Marussia teammates Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi also disputed the same bit of track – in Turns 3 and 4 – but it ended in tears.
“I had a good start, Chilton said, “pulled away from the cars behind into Turn 1, queued into Turn 2, and then we had a coming together into Turn 3. The resulting accident was very unfortunate for us both.” Bianchi’s car was a smoking wreck.
“I got a great start,” he said, Kept everyone Who was behind me behind and then obviously Max and I were racing each other through Turns 2 and 3. I braked into turn 3 and there was an impact, after which I ended up in the wall with a badly damaged car.”
Daniel Ricciardo leads Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull Racing RB10 Renault.Image: Charles Coates/LAT Photographic.
ref: Digital Image _N7T6583
The stewards handed Chilton a three-place grid penalty in the next race for causing the collision. The race was restarted after the drivers spent seven laps behind the Safety Car. Rosberg led over Hamilton.
By the time the race reached its midpoint, however, both of the works Mercs were having problems.
“We were able to run at a good level of performance at the beginning of the race, notwithstanding a minor incident for Nico when he ran straight on at Turn 14 in the second stint” the team’s tech chief Paddy Lowe explained.
“We then experienced a near-simultaneous failure of the MGU-K on both cars just after half distance, which was apparently caused by an issue in the high-voltage Control Electronics which manage the MGU-K.
“This meant both cars lost hybrid power from this point onwards and, without the additional braking force of the MGU-K, this also put a much higher load on the rear brakes.
“Lewis then suffered a complete rear brake failure after his second pitstop, which was a consequence of the MGU-K fault. Nico was not affected in the same way and managed incredibly to maintain position from lap 37 to lap 67, making up time in the first and second sectors in order to defend in sector three, when he was considerably down on power.
“This was achievable against the Force India but not the Red Bull after Ricciardo finally passed Pérez.”
Until the problems struck Hamilton he was having a strong race.
“There was nothing I could do about our issues really, he said. “We were managing the loss of power but as soon as I finally made the jump on Nico in the second pitstop, my brakes failed going into Turn 10.
“It’s great for the team that Nico was able to hold on and get second place today but it’s tough for me. That’s two DFs now this season and now I have to try and recover the points gap again.
But these are learning experiences: we’ll learn as a team and get stronger. Congratulations to Daniel today. It’s awesome for him to get his first win and I know this will be a really special day for him.” Rosberg did a superb job of adjusting his driving
style to cope with the car’s problems.
“I lost the ERS, he said, “and when you lose ERS then it doesn’t harvest anymore and then all the braking on the rear is being done by the brakes and then the rear brakes overheated. So it was one problem and then the next problem happened. That just made it massively difficult. I needed to cool the brakes a lot. I lost a lot of power on the straights.
“At the same time, taking those things into consideration, I was just pushing flat out, qualifying laps, one after another and managing to stay ahead of that pack behind me until two laps from the end.
“From that point of view it was a very good result and lots of points. Congratulations, of course, also to Daniel. Fantastic to get the first win. That’s great for him. Not great for me but anyways!”
At the start of the final lap Pérez was running third when Massa tried to pass him. Pérez braked earlier than he had on previous laps, jinked slightly to his left, and the left-rear wheel of his car snagged the front-right wheel of Massa’s Williams.
Massa slammed into the barriers at 27 G. Both drivers were taken to a local hospital for checks and released. The stewards gave Pérez a five-place grid penalty at the next race for causing the shunt.
“On the final lap I was defending my position going into Turn 1 when I suddenly got hit from behind,” Pérez said. “It was a big impact, but I am okay. The one-stop strategy was working perfectly.
It was not easy in the final laps and I was pushing hard to try and get ahead of Nico for the lead.
Daniel managed to get ahead of me when I had an electrical issue with my car, but I managed to get the system for the final couple of laps and I am just very disappointed for the points we lost.”
Ricciardo and Red Bull would not have won if Mercedes had stumbled, but Ricciardo was there to pounce.
2014 Canadian Grand Prix results
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