Daniel Ricciardo demands huge Free Practice Red Flag rule change  

Ricciardo wants a rule to pause practice timers during red flags for smoother driver runs.

Daniel Ricciardo demands huge Free Practice Red Flag rule change  

Daniel Ricciardo (via IMAGO)

The second practice session in Free Practice 2 of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend was marked by two major red flags that interrupted the session. Carlos Sainz crashed out first, finding the barrier after a bump, and Nico Hulkenberg lost his car just as the session restarted following Sainz’s incident.

The interruptions caused major disruptions to all teams’ strategies for the practice sessions, such as what fuel load and set-ups they would run. Daniel Ricciardo called for a change in the regulations for practice sessions, saying the qualifying system of stopping the countdown timer until the session resumes should be used.

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If there isn't [anything on track after F1], it would be nice to stop the clock. I did FP1, but a lot of drivers didn't, so they are kind of staring down an FP1 with like five laps or something. So, it would have been nice to maybe get a little bit of time back.
Daniel Ricciardo said, as reported by autosport.com

Ricciardo finished in the top three for FP1 though, another good result for him after a great comeback from his injury break since Austin. Ricciardo is the team’s leading pointscorer with six points from Mexico.

Daniel Ricciardo explains lapse in form at Las Vegas GP

Daniel Ricciardo made his comeback to Formula One with Alpha Tauri in the middle of 2023 after being let go from his McLaren contract early. The Australian made a great comeback with the team, scoring six points in Mexico and achieving good results elsewhere too.

Alpha Tauri's Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo (via IMAGO)


The Las Vegas Strip Circuit, however, did not see Alpha Tauri thrive like it has at other venues. Daniel Ricciardo explained that the team failed to get the tyres in the right window under cold temperatures, and did not have the best set-up for the race. He said:

 It was really the asphalt and the temperatures. I think that was obviously something that was a bit of a challenge, to get on top of it and to get the tyres working and in the right window.

The lack of grip affected more than just Alpha Tauri. No grip at the start saw Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen miss the apex at turn 1, causing carnage at the beginning. Lando Norris also spun out and met the barriers after finding absolutely no grip.

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