Redemption for Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo fended off Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in a masterful race to win the Monaco Grand Prix. Aside from suffering from power loss at his only pit stop the Australian dominated Monaco. Lewis Hamilton took third place whilst Daniel held off Vettel for over 50 laps! This fantastic weekend for Daniel sent him into 3rd place and for Hamilton now leading Vettel by 14 points. Before the race, Ricciardo actually said that he felt he was owed a win from Monaco. Although he said he’d have to earn it and so he did.
“Two years later I finally feel like redemption has arrived. We had a lot to deal with during the race. I felt a loss of power and I thought the race was done. I got home just using six gears. Thanks to the team I got it back. There were a few doubts getting it to the end of the race but we won Monaco.”
Power Loss
He came in to pit on the 17th lap. He started to complain down the radio about a lack of power in his Aston Martin. The team knew what the problem was, however, they wanted to keep it from their rivals. As a result of this, they told him the problem would not improve. It turns out that the part of the hybrid system that recovers and redeploys energy was missing. 25% of his engine power was down which in his car adds up to a loss of around 225bhp. With that amount of power gone 2.5 seconds were added to every lap according to his Team Boss Christian Horner. Daniel had a three-second lead after the pit stop, however, Vettel was closing up right behind him. Fortunately for Ricciardo, many drivers were lapping four-to-five seconds off their potential maximum pace. This was to ensure they didn’t burn their tyres out and this was the case throughout the whole event. Daniel was congratulated by engineer Simon Rennie over the radio on the slowing-down lap.
Compliments
”I don’t know how you did that mate” he radioed back.
Christian Horner, who was the youngest team principal to win a Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship said to him
“You have done an amazing job today. That is right up there with what Schumacher did… and it is payback for 2016.” Said Horner. Michael Schumacher’s finished second for Benetton with only fifth gear in the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix.
Alonso’s first retirement
Fernando Alonso retired for the 1st time of the season with a broken gearbox allowing Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly into seventh place. Pierre did an astonishing 37-laps on only the hyper-soft tyres. The Frenchman did well to fend off the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the end.
More F1 Gossip
Max Verstappen has had the description of ”impatient” thrown at him by Red Bull’s motorsport chief Helmut Marko. After starting 20th at the Monaco Grand Prix and finishing ninth Verstappen said
“I just didn’t want to go to risky and have a crash and I cannot be in that position now, I did everything with a certain margin. I knew if I had taken a bit more risk then I still wouldn’t have got past them.”
After his crash in practice caused him to miss qualifying Verstappen performed well recovering from starting at the very back of the grid.
Stofell Vanfoorne said that his chance of victory in Monaco was sacrificed by his own team. He believes that it was sacrificed in favour of his team-mate Fernando Alonso.
Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes said that Vandoorne ‘Has the intelligence and the talent to progress and become a very great driver. Toto also hoped that he gets the time for that to be the case.
Following the decision to switch to the ultrasoft on lap 15, Renault driver, Carlos Sainz his race was ”a bit of a disaster right from the start”.
Next Race
Formula One is travelling to Canada for the next race on the weekend of the 8th of June until the 10th. Our heroes will be racing around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Canada is a place where there is a lot of overtaking, the racing is aggressive and Lewis Hamilton excels. Canada is also where Renault and Honda have a tendency for major engine upgrades. If Renault can live up to the expectations Ricciardo could become a major title contender.