Daniel Ricciardo has had a mixed start to the 2018 F1 season, suffering a grid penalty in qualifying but ending just outside the podium on raceday, also putting in the fastest lap.
Ricciardo’s grid penalty came about as he was going too fast during a red flag in practice on Friday. Ricciardo was furious with the decision of the stewards and accused them of robbing him off a place on the podium.
“They could have fined me … anything but robbing me a chance of a front row start,” Ricciardo said.
Ricciardo believes that that won’t be the only penalty he receives this season as he already expects a few engine related penalties to fly his way, as ‘component usage’ has stricter rules this time round.
The new rules state that three each of the internal combustion engines, heat motor generator units and turbochargers plus only two each of the kinetic motor generator units, energy stores and control electronics for the entire 2018 season. Any extra components used could result in engine grid penalties.
Renault and Honda have suffered from reliability issues in the past and thus Red Bull(being powered by a Renault engine) could have to use extra components this time round.
Ricciardo is resigned to the fact that he will indeed be slapped with such grid penalties later on in the season.
“I had a few engine penalties last year and we’ve got one less [engine] this year so it’s likely – I don’t want to say it’s definite – but it’s obviously likely that we may encounter something like that or everyone may encounter something like that,” Ricciardo said.
“I think it depends where you are in the championship. If you try to cut your losses I guess then maybe that’s what you’ll do but it’s for sure too early to start thinking about that.
“I think we’ll stay optimistic and try to get these three home to Abu Dhabi.” he concluded.
