World News – GB – Daniel Ricciardo: « It certainly wasn’t what we wanted in terms of our race » – The Checkered Flag

The Renault DP World F1 team could not use the double resignation of the Formula 1 team from BWT Racing Point to climb in fifth place higher than the fifth constructors’ standings.

Daniel Ricciardo initially got off to a good start, but the session was on the red flag due to the terrible incident with Romain Grosjean. Grosjean’s car was on fire after colliding with the safety barrier. Fortunately, he was able to move away from the accident.

At the restart Ricciardo did not have such a good start and fell back to tenth place. He was able to climb back to seventh place and pursued Pierre Gasly in sixth, but due to the retirement of Sergio Pérez a safety car with few laps remaining was brought out and then completed under the safety car.

Ricciardo said, « First of all, I’m glad Romain is fine after the incident. Today’s result is not that important after that and it is a bit of an afterthought. Seeing him escape and walk away was a relief and I wish him well in his recovery. That is the main thing today. In terms of our race, it was certainly not what we wanted, but we did our best and still managed to score points. We’ll be focused on next week if it comes to still playing in the championship and we’ll come back stronger. ”

After the race, Ricciardo was disappointed with the number of times Formula 1 broadcast the Grosjean crash per hour while the session was on the red flag.

In an interview with Ziggo TV he said: “I would like to express my disgust and disappointment with Formula 1. The way the Grosjean incident was broadcast over and over again, the reruns over and over, was completely disrespectful and inconsiderate to his family, to all of our families who were watching.

« We’re going to be racing again in an hour and every time we look at the TV it’s a fireball and his car is cut in half. « . I mean we can see this tomorrow, we don’t have to see it today. For me it was entertainment and they play with all of our emotions and I thought it was pretty gross. Hopefully some other drivers have contacted us. But if we don’t all feel this way, I would be very surprised. ”

Esteban Ocon spent much of the race higher up the grid than his teammate but eventually relinquished his position to Ricciardo on his team commands after the Australian showed a faster race pace. He finished ninth and scored two points for the team, but not enough to climb the constructors’ championship.

As Ocon looked at Grosjean’s incident, he tried to believe that Grosjean was fine after the terrible mess the car was left in.

Ocon said, “The first and foremost thing is the message from Romain [Grosjean] and I wish him a very speedy recovery. It was a crazy incident. The team told me in the car that they were fine, but when I looked at the pictures I tried to believe it. It’s a wonder he’s fine and I’m glad to hear he’s fine. Our race today was secondary. We have a lot to report from the race because the McLarens were a little faster than us. We will keep working on what we can do with the shorter layout next weekend and try to regain some points. ”

Team boss Cyril Abiteboul is disappointed with the course of the race after Ricciardo and Ocon finished sixth and respectively. Seventh had qualified. He was expecting more from the race and can only regret the lost chance for Ricciardo to finish sixth at the end of the race.

“After a promising qualifying with both drivers in the top ten on medium tires, Daniel in sixth and Esteban in seventh, this race is clearly disappointing. We lost positions during the two starts, the first with Esteban and the second with Daniel, which hampered our race and affected our strategy with early stops, ”said Abiteboul.

“In the second stint, both cars couldn’t find the pace and we have to understand why. At the end of the race Daniel was up to speed again and would have finished sixth without the intervention of the safety car. The final result of this weekend does not match our ambitions and we have to regroup very quickly for the last two races. I also wish Romain a speedy recovery from this terrible accident and hope to see him again at the wheel before the end of the season. ”

Daniel Ricciardo, Formula 1, Romain Grosjean, Sebastian Vettel, Formula racing