Daniel Ricciardo had to swallow his pride to allow Lando Norris pass in F1 Imola GP, as Andreas Seidl adds it was a fair call for McLaren.
Ricciardo managed to beat Norris in qualifying after the latter dropped down due to track limits in F1 Imola GP qualifying. Even during the trick race start, the Australian managed to hold on to his track position as the Brit fended off the charge from Ferrari.
Eventually, Norris caught the tail of Ricciardo. The faster Brit conveyed the message to McLaren F1 pitwall, which was acknowledged duly. The Australian agreed readily and made way for his teammate to get ahead, which was crucial for a future podium finish.
Norris pulled out a solid gap immediately and post red flag, passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to secure his second podium. Ricciardo had to fend off AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, which he managed to end up a fine sixth place.
It was not easy for Ricciardo, though, as he had keep his pride aside to allow Norris through. “The conditions were certainly challenging,” he started. “It was probably the two most challenging parts were the laps to grid. The first one, we couldn’t really see how much it had rained through that first sector.
“We could see on the screens that was water but there was so much like it was aquaplaning all on the intermediate. So that was just okay. Let’s just survive this lap to grid. And then the start even being towards the front. Just visibility. I think it’s always the same but with F1 there’s so much spray going into Turn 2 you’re literally just guessing where to brake so it worked out okay for me that part.
“I got a position but just you kind of just hold on and hope for the best. As for the team orders, I think that’s why I certainly got to swallow like my pride and there was no. Honestly, the team were fair enough. They gave me time to try to show my face. There was some left right where, I had a bit and I could kind of do a decent time.
“The time that was required to show what I had. And it wasn’t enough. I’m not going get into any fisticuffs, it was fair enough,” summed up Ricciardo when speaking to Sky Sports. His team boss, Seidl, called it fair on them to take the call to maximise the opportunities for McLaren on the whole.
“We have a clear agreement with both drivers and within the team that we will always make decisions that ensure that we maximise the result for the team,” Seidl said to media including FormulaRapida.net. “We let our drivers race, but let’s say if we see that they run into each other on track and if we judge it as one driver having a superior pace at that moment compared to the other driver, we make the decision to swap.
“That’s what we did today. In general, we will always make sure for both drivers that in the end these two guys can battle it out on track. But again, if we think in order to maximise the team result a swap makes sense than we do it,” summed up Seidl.
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