Daniel Ricciardo laments ‘lame’ F1 rule that ruined his Brazilian GP outing

Daniel Ricciardo has a horrendous outing at the famous Interlagos F1 circuit.

Daniel Ricciardo laments ‘lame’ F1 rule that ruined his Brazilian GP outing

Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)

The 2023 Brazilian Grand Prix was a memorable event for the lights of Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Fernando Alonso. But the same was not true for AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Their race pretty much came to an end during the initial few tussles.

As the lights went out at Interlagos, Daniel Ricciardo’s car was hit by a tire that came off Alex Albon’s car after his crash with Kevin Magnussen. Piastri also incurred damage during the incident, and when the Red Flag came out, the two drivers dived into the pits to get their car fixed ahead of the restart.

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However, when the race got restarted, the duo was already a lap down because of a FIA rule. According to it, if a car is worked on in the garage rather than the fast lane, they are required to start the race from the pits, and because they pitted before the Red Flag, they were already a lap down on the rest of the grid.

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The above-mentioned rule has not sat well in their conscience of Ricciardo, and while talking about his outing during the post-race interviews, he said, as reported by WTF1,

Was obviously frustrating… you look back at those things, and it’s nice it didn’t hit me, so then I was like, ‘hopefully, there’s a red flag, and we can get back in the race. I don’t know how we started the race a lap down, so that’s really frustrating. Something a bit lame in the rules.

Daniel Ricciardo had a potent car underneath him at Interlagos

While Daniel Ricciardo could not make much of an impression during the 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix, he did have the car underneath him that proved strong around the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace F1 circuit. Yuki Tsunoda, in the other AT04, was able to score a well-deserved ninth-place finish.

Daniel Ricciardo (Credits: Planet F1)
Daniel Ricciardo (Credits: Planet F1)

The Japanese driver was comfortably able to keep the lights of Esteban Ocon at bay and, in the end, had a comfortable margin on him. Considering the Japanese driver’s impressive outing, this could also have been a reason behind the frustration that stemmed out of Ricciardo in Brazil.

However, there are still two Grand Prix events remaining in the 2023 F1 season. The inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix is just around the corner and it would be the perfect opportunity for Daniel Ricciardo to bounce back after his disappointing Interlagos outing. The Las Vegas F1 weekend is kicking off on the upcoming 16th of November.

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