Emotional Ricciardo reveals 'biggest shame' at Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo has made a heartfelt revelation about his “biggest shame” at Red Bull as the Aussie’s rollercoaster ride with the F1 team nears its end.
Ricciardo is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season for Renault, who provide his current team with their engines under Tag Heuer branding.
As things stand for the 29-year-old, it’s looking like being an unhappy farewell for the Aussie as engine problems continue to frustrate him.
The Aussie failed to finish a race for the seventh time this season – more than any other driver – after a power unit issue ended his US Grand Prix after just 10 laps.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to retire so early in the race and I just don’t seem to have any luck at the moment,” the Australian said.
The power cut-out happened while he was in fourth place, having seen off a challenge from Ferrari’s Formula One title contender Sebastian Vettel.
Ricciardo says his latest setback leaves him with little time to end his career with Red Bull on a positive note.
“The biggest shame is that I only have a handful of races left with Red Bull and I want to have more highs than we’ve had,” he said.
“I want to be able to celebrate with the team at least one more time and be on the podium to enjoy that feeling, but we’re running out of races which is pretty tough to take at the moment.”
An angry Ricciardo left his mark on Sunday’s US Grand Prix by punching through a wall in the Red Bull hospitality area after his latest engine failure.
“He’s taken out his frustration in his room by putting his fist through the wall, which you can totally relate to,” commented team boss Christian Horner.
“I’m sure he’ll be having a word with his future employers about it – it’s so frustrating to keep losing him from races at the moment.”
Horner said the failure was exactly the same one as Ricciardo suffered in Bahrain earlier in the year.
“It looks like a major issue in the energy store and it just takes out all the power,” he said.
“We’ve got another energy store within the allocation without having to take a penalty and the Renault guys in the garage have obviously apologised, which we appreciate, but the frustration is for Daniel.
“He knows its not a team issue, he knows it’s nothing we’ve done. He can’t get his head around why it keeps happening to him,” added the boss.
Ricciardo, whose Dutch team mate Max Verstappen finished second after starting 18th, hasn’t set foot on the podium since winning the Monaco GP earlier in the year.
“I couldn’t even communicate with anyone on the radio so it looks like a battery failure,” he said.
“Now, seeing how the race played out makes it even harder to take as it could have been pretty interesting and it was a great afternoon for Max.”
With AAP
