Huge frustration for Daniel Ricciardo

“I've been through this before, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow and be motivated to prepare for China. » confessed Daniel Ricciardo after his abandonment in Melbourne. Already looking towards the next meeting of the season, the pilot Red Bull clearly did not have an ideal start to the season this weekend at its home event in Australia.

Accidented in qualifying in Q3, the Australian, ranked 10th at the end of the session, received a five-place penalty for a gearbox change. But the teammate of Max Verstappen will not even have had the opportunity to start from the starting grid of the Albert Park circuit, after mechanical problems when leaving the stands before the start.

“Daniel obviously had a problem with a gearbox sensor which stopped the car in sixth gear, explains Team Principal Christian Horner. It was an incredible job by the mechanics to get the car back into racing. »

Starting off almost two laps behind, the Australian set off for a full-scale test session, while counting on potential safety cars to move up the hierarchy, but a new mechanical problem finally stopped him before the 30th round. “There was another problem with the fuel system that we need to look at to understand. » continues Horner.

Reasons to hope

“It’s not the weekend I wanted at home,” laments Ricciardo. Having all of these things happen during my home race is probably the most frustrating thing. But, it's only the first race so hopefully we'll progress from this. Of course I'm disappointed now, but that's how it is. »

Ricciardo also highlighted the good racing performances of the RB13, which finished in the wake of the Ferrari Kimi Räikkönen's SF70H, after being dominated by four tenths in qualifying yesterday.

“Max's pace in the race looked a little more encouraging, so I think we're better than we're showing, but it's still a bit of a puzzle we're trying to figure out. » underlines Ricciardo.

Find the full report and analysis of the Australian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Melbourne, in issue 2107 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.