“Nothing left to lose,” Andreas Seidl explains failed Daniel Ricciardo gamble

“Nothing left to lose,” Andreas Seidl explains failed Daniel Ricciardo gamble

Daniel Ricciardo in his second season with McLaren has not had a start to his season with flying colours. The Aussie was the talk of the paddock at the beginning of the season as it was termed as a make or break season for him. Daniel Ricciardo had a poor start with scoring zero points from the first two races. However, back in his home race after 3 years, his fortunes seemed to change. The homeboy hero at Australia scored his first points and carried the momentum coming to Italy.

The weekend at Imola started well for Daniel Ricciardo as he crossed the chequered flag in P6 in both the Qualifying and Sprint race. The Mclaren driver gained three points from the sprint race finish, taking him to the 11th position in drivers championship. The misfortune struck the Aussie in the opening lap itself in the Grand Prix on Sunday. Coming out of turn one, Daniel Ricciardo crashed into Carlos Sainz, which tumbled him down to the back of the grid with a damaged car.

Andreas Seidl sums up Daniel Ricciardo’s race in Imola

Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz

After the turn one crash with Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo dropping to the back of the grid had a difficult time as he had damage to his MCL-36 diffuser. As the wet Imola track dried, he pitted on lap 18 for fresh slick tyres to salvage something out of the race. Mclaren team principal, Andreas Seidl explained this move saying, “We were the first ones because there was nothing left to lose when you run at the back with a damaged car and it was obviously a chance to get feedback from Daniel for Lando on how it was going out there.”

Andres Seidl further added “So there was again nowhere to go and nothing to gain, that is why we went for the next gamble, putting Daniel early on the hard tyre because at this time of the race it wasn’t clear yet if we could run through on the mediums or not. But with nothing else happening in the race, there was nothing to gain but it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

Daniel Ricciardo was highly impressed by his Mclaren car’s pace as he said in his media interviews. An adversity in the opening lap of the race defined his whole Sunday. However, he still came away with 3 points from the weekend. A podium finish by his team mate, Lando Norris would have rubbed salt in his wounds. The Aussie would be highly motivated to turn things around going into Miami Grand Prix.

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