Daniel Ricciardo taking the fastest lap toward the end of the Singapore GP has become a big point of contention. While Lando Norris had the fastest lap bonus point, RB pitted Ricciardo for soft tires in the final laps and many speculated that their parent team Red Bull may have orchestrated this for Max Verstappen’s championship gain.
F1 expert Tim Hauraney also explained that it did not make sense why Ricciardo went for the fastest lap despite being out of the points. On the Nailing the Apex podcast, Hauraney said,
“Since Daniel took the fastest lap away from Lando, Lando doesn’t get the extra point. Daniel doesn’t get the point either, but he does get the fastest lap, right? So, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Hauraney also highlighted RB’s explanation of why they pitted Ricciardo for the fastest lap. The Faenza-based outfit wanted to give the Aussie some sort of “reward”, given his impending reported exit from the team before the US GP. However, this effort took the additional point away from Lando Norris and inadvertently helped Verstappen’s championship defense.
| Laurent Mekies on Daniel Ricciardo:
“Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savor it and go out with the fastest lap.”
— formula racers (@formularacers_) September 22, 2024
With 52 points separating the title contenders, Verstappen now only needs to finish second in every remaining race [sprints and Grands Prix] to secure his fourth World Championship. It won’t matter if Norris wins all these races with only six race weekends remaining.
Even Ricciardo was aware of these permutations and how crucial this fastest lap point could prove in the 2024 championship battle. Hauraney quoted the Aussie’s post-race comments about the same, “Daniel had said ‘at the end of it I am gonna have a good Christmas present if Max wins the championship by one point.'”
He mentioned that even if RB denies helping out their senior team, it doesn’t sit right due to Red Bull’s ownership of the Faenza-based outfit. McLaren CEO Zak Brown had highlighted this issue earlier in the season and F1 needs to have all teams operating independently. Now, the Woking team’s top brass have underscored the same notion.
McLaren boss wants all ‘autonomous’ teams in F1
While Brown did not comment as aggressively as a few months ago, he highlighted the need to look at this issue of Red Bull effectively having two teams and four drivers on the grid. Even McLaren team principal Andrea Stella stated that all F1 teams should operate autonomously at all times.
Stella said, “As part of a longer-term conversation, we need to get the sport into a position where teams are completely autonomous at all times, whether it’s on the track or in the factory.”
Even Hauraney’s co-host Adam stated that if he were in Brown’s place, he would complain about this situation. Now, the McLaren bosses can’t prove that Red Bull purposely orchestrated such a call for Ricciardo to take away the fastest lap from Norris.
Still, Adam highlighted that F1 can look to have a conversation with Red Bull to do something about their control and ownership of the Faenza-based team.
