"Obviously something that's gone wrong" says Ricciardo after Qatar Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo says a directive to urgently save fuel cost him valuable pace in the Qatar Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo says a directive to save fuel put him out of contention for the Qatar Grand Prix. (Formula 1)
The McLaren driver was already facing an uphill battle to score points in Qatar after starting fourteenth on the grid.
He was uncompetitive in the race, revealing he had been told to save fuel from lap one.
"We had a few things going on today," said Ricciardo.
"So already from lap one I had some fuel warnings on the dash which you don’t get on lap one, so I ignored it, because I thought okay, it’s just an error in the dash."
"But then quite early I was told that you need to seriously start saving fuel."
"I saved quite a lot, like already what I thought was too much, and I was told it’s not enough, it’s not enough, to the point where we were probably going two seconds a lap slower and with that, tyres get cold, brakes get cold, so you lose even more ultimately.”
"So we had to do that for the majority of the race."
Ricciardo says the issue was eventually identified during the race. (McLaren)
The Australian said the issue was identified during the race, but by then it was too late.
"I was told no more fuel saving and pushed like crazy."
"I don’t know why I always laugh, I don’t mean to laugh."
"It was painful and it’s just obviously something that’s gone wrong in the data or the calculations today and we were getting the wrong information."
"So that’s what we need to look into, because our race was dictated by the numbers we were receiving and clearly those numbers were wrong."
The recent triple-header has been unproductive for McLaren, losing ground in the Constructors' championship against third-place rivals Ferrari.
Ferrari is 39.5 points ahead of McLaren with two races remaining.
"I’m looking forward to moving on," said Ricciardo.
“I think a weekend off is necessary for everyone involved."
"We’ll debrief now, try to understand the issues today and then we’ve got some sim time next week to get ready for the last two."
“Let’s finish strong.”
