Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo had the best seat in the house for the controversial final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and now audio from his team radio has revealed what he thought of it.
Max Verstappen snatched the world title away from Lewis Hamilton with a last-lap pass, with Mercedes claiming the restart after a safety car period was botched by officials.
Only some of the lapped cars were allowed to unlap themselves before the race was restarted, a departure from the normal procedure.
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Ricciardo was one of the drivers told to hold station, leaving him third in the queue, immediately behind Hamilton and Verstappen.
The Mercedes driver was powerless to prevent Verstappen from passing on the final lap, given the Dutchman had fresh tyres.
“I’m glad I’m not part of that, whatever just happened,” Ricciardo said. “Seemed, uh, pretty f—ed up.”
“Thanks guys for the season.”
Speaking immediately after the race, Ricciardo, who finished 12th, conceded the finish was crazy.
“I was confused because I got that message that they won’t overtake,” Ricciardo said.
“Through my head I thought, ‘that seems OK, like I guess, fair, because Lewis had such a lead and Max has newer tyres. In this way he has to cut through a few cars if they’re going to restart the race’.
“Then I saw some cars overtake so I asked, ‘what do I do? Do I pass?’, and then I think (McLaren engineer) Tom (Stallard) said, ‘no, you have to stay here’.
“So I’ve literally got front-row seats for the last lap. And I’m also on a new soft, or a newer soft, so I was like, ‘do I pass both of them?’.
“Nah, just kidding. I’m honestly a bit speechless, I don’t know what to make of that. I really don’t. I need to see how it all came about.”
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