Daniel Ricciardo was pleased after his fightback in F1 Mexico GP where he overcame a time penalty to end up in points via good strategy.
Having missed out on Q3, McLaren’s Ricciardo had an average start in F1 Mexico GP where he was around the Top 10 but not in the points early on. He was in the situation where his strategy would have more or less defined his grand prix result.
Since had nothing much to lose and the hard tyres not working for others, Ricciardo and McLaren decided eventually to adopt the medium-soft strategy. That was the one which worked for him and despite the 10s penalty, he overcame that to be in points.
The tangle with Yuki Tsunoda eventually set the course for him as he overtook Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon to end up seventh and eke out a 12s margin to cover his time penalty against the Frenchman after clearing him.
While fighting with Alfa Romeo, Ricciardo realised that he is in with a chance and the pace shown by Sebastian Vettel on his soft stint also helped in the decision making. In terms of the penalty, he did take responsibility but reckoned 10s was more than enough.
Good recovery after slower start –
Ricciardo: “The one thing that kept me a little optimistic is that I was quicker than Zhou. I feel like the Alfas had been quick all weekend. So, I was losing time with him. But eventually when I passed him, I thought, okay, maybe we’re still in this race. And I could see Lando and the guys, they were certainly some laps quicker, but then I would reel him back. So I wasn’t. However, I felt I was still in the fight. Which, you know, hasn’t been very often this year. I was kind of just doing my pace. Once I saw they pitted. I wasn’t really that tempted to follow them, because it just puts me in their race, and I’m just behind them. Tom kept asking me how much longer I could go. I said, you know, even though my pace might not be the fastest car on the track, I feel like we can keep stretching. Vettel was still on a soft doing well. That gave me some confidence that that tyre would work and it was certainly a good strategy.”
Going long on soft was ideal plus collision –
Ricciardo: “At that point, I didn’t really care because I didn’t have that much to lose and as soon as I got out the pits the tyre was like so much better. I could lean on it. I felt like I was in control. So, I was like, let’s just use this tyre, see what it is and see what it’s got. And then it stayed relatively consistent. I kind of pushed really hard. Then just tried to manage it. It was still giving me a lot a lot more pace. Then I guess that next, you will ask about Yuki. So now I’ve seen a few replays. I’ll take more of the responsibility, but it’s certainly I don’t feel 100 to zero in terms of my fault.
“I didn’t lock, I stayed on the apex, truth is I didn’t actually plan or want overtake him there. I mean, of course I’d love to overtake him, I wasn’t set into that corner to like outbrake him and overtake him. I just thought if I stay there. I mean, it’s nothing that you probably don’t know, but all the grip’s on the inside of that corner. It’s very dusty. So I thought if I could just stay there keep him a bit on the dirty line. I’ll get a better exit. Look, we probably needed to give each other 20-30 more centimetres and we’re fine. Probably not even that. I wish it didn’t happen. I’m sorry that it happened . 10 seconds was more than enough and somehow we kind of still came through.”
Surprised with the penalty –
Ricciardo: “I figured they probably have to do something. But it’s so hard when you’re in the heat of battle. I didn’t remember like locking. You know, like with Carlos in Imola at Turn 1. Then, I went off the apex and slid into him. It didn’t feel like that. So, I was going to come on the radio and vent a little. I just chose to say nothing. I went pretty dark and then just decided to keep pushing and try to make up for it.”
Whose plan to stay out as other teams didn’t think of it –
Ricciardo: “It was mine. It was one of the plans.. We always have a few. Don’t get me wrong. Yu have a few that are your top plans. And it was in the top group. Look, I think Vettel started on soft from memory, the information I was getting said he was going long. And I saw Yuki as well in front of me do pretty well on the soft. So there was for me enough evidence that it was actually performing better than we thought. So also as well, I think at the time I was out of the points. So, it’s maybe easier as well for me to say I didn’t have much to lose, but saying that I was confident that it was going to be a good decision.”
Norris wanted the same strategy as it was about 40s faster –
Ricciardo: “It was 40 seconds faster? If it was 40 seconds everyone would have done it! Don’t get me wrong. It was the better strategy. There’s no doubt. It was in our plan. It was, you know… if the tyre was lasting, keep going and try to attack at the end. That’s what we did. So, I obviously can’t comment on Lando’s race, for sure. His race could have been better with that as well. I can’t remember what lap he pitted. But him pitting as early as he did wouldn’t have made the soft last. At least, I don’t think.”
Here’s crash between Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2022-mexico-city-grand-prix-tsunoda-out-of-the-race-after-ricciardo-clash.1748152464722287944.html
