Breaking news
Formula 1 Mexican GP
Ricciardo “confused, annoyed, helpless” after dismal Mexico qualifying
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo says he feels mystified over his sudden loss of pace after qualifying down in seventh position for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Oct 28, 2017, 8:23 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
While his teammate Max Verstappen came within 0.086s of pole position, Ricciardo was almost a second off his pace – and even beaten to a top-six spot by Force India’s Esteban Ocon. He failed to match his own FP3 time by a tenth, and was only 0.019s faster than Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg in Q3.
“I topped practice yesterday, and having the same settings this morning, we were pretty much on P1 pace,” said Ricciardo. “We haven’t touched the car from yesterday to today, up to qualifying, and from the start of the session it was just… nowhere.
“We tried doing two warm-up laps, one warm-up lap. But it seemed like whatever grip I had when I left the box, I had for the session.
“We played around a bit with front wing, but the car was numb to anything in qualifying. In the end we couldn’t do anything, I was pretty helpless. We need to understand why. We’re seventh when we’ve been fighting towards the front all weekend.
“If we get back to the car we had, I think we can still race up to the podium tomorrow. But qualifying was… what’s a word without swearing? We were very confused, annoyed, helpless.”
When pushed on the cause of the problem, he replied: “It seems like something fundamental and I don’t know now what that is. The feeling was like you don’t have tyre blankets, going out and sliding everywhere, can’t generate the grip you require.
“Sometimes you get one set of tyres you can't turn on, so you might lose a bit of time, but every run was the same story, so super, super frustrated, confused. I'm sure we'll find something, but it doesn't make the session any easier to go through. We couldn't really do anything.
“This morning the track was really cold, and we were still able to hit it on the first lap. So this afternoon [as it was warmer] it should have been a breeze to warm the tyres up and to get them going.
"That's where it's more confusing right now; that doesn't really explain the problems we had – if anything that should have helped the warm-up.
“The adrenaline is slowly coming down now. I wasn't... for sure angry, but just helpless, helpless in that qualifying.”
Additional reporting by Glenn Freeman
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Vettel: I nearly lost the car on my pole lap
Next article Grosjean says Haas' Mexico form "a slap in the face"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Charles Bradley
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
More from
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Barcelona-Catalunya GP
Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"
Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Canadian GP
Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP
Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit
Formula 1
Formula 1
Canadian GP
Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit
More from
Red Bull Racing
Christian Horner takes cheeky swipe at Guenther Steiner: 'He never achieved an F1 podium'
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
20 h
Christian Horner takes cheeky swipe at Guenther Steiner: 'He never achieved an F1 podium'
Christian Horner admits that F1 rivalry with Toto Wolff became "theatre"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Christian Horner admits that F1 rivalry with Toto Wolff became "theatre"
Latest news
F2 rebuffs suggestion its title race might be over because of the Iran war
FIA F2
F2 FIA F2 48 min
F2 rebuffs suggestion its title race might be over because of the Iran war
Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 10 h
Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”
How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
10 h
How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
10 h
Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe