Daniel Ricciardo‘s season-best sixth placing at the Australian Grand Prix could have been bettered had he not been kept back by his team in the closing stages of his home race, an exchange on team radio has revealed.
After qualifying seventh, the Western Australian ran behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris for most of the 58-lap race. Both drivers gained an extra position when reigning world champion Max Verstappen retired from second place to finish fifth and sixth.
However, under team orders, Ricciardo was instructed not to put a struggling Norris under pressure on the final lap of the Albert Park Circuit to ensure both cars scored the constructor’s first championship points for 2022.
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“Daniel, we’re managing something on Lando’s car. It’s OK to close the gap – but don’t put him under pressure. This is the last lap. Don’t get too close to Lando, he may lose power,” the Aussie was told.
Ricciardo responded: “If he loses power, what do I do?”
His race engineer replied: “Oh, drive past! I just don’t want you to hit him.”
The 32-year-old later explained the bizarre but not uncommon situation.
“It looked like a bit of a photo finish with me and Lando and I was told he had a few issues towards the end and he slowed down quite a lot. But the team said ‘be sensible’, so I had to control myself a little bit,” he told Sky F1.
“But still, P5 and P6 is still a massive result for us. If you had told me in Bahrain this would have happened I would have laughed sarcastically, so very happy with this progress.”
After dismal showings in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with crippling brake issues, Ricciardo was pleased with the advancement of the MCL36 in Melbourne.
“I think that’s probably the best way to sum up the weekend – we’ll take it,” he said.
“I mean, after Bahrain I was still very positive and I knew we could make a turnaround. I didn’t think it would happen already, so for that reason, I’ll definitely take it.
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“The weekend as a whole has been just smoother, smoother for all of us. And we’ve shown a lot more for it.
“I think parts of my race were more competitive. In the beginning I felt strong on the medium [tyre]. But then on the hard that kind of last three quarters I drifted a bit back.
“I found a bit of pace after but [there are] still some parts of the race I can keep chipping away at.
“But yeah, team result was mega compared to the last few.”
Norris now sits eight in the world drivers’ championship with 16 points, while Ricciardo is 11th, on eight points.
McLaren moves into fourth position in the constructors’ standings, leapfrogging Alpine to remain 80 points away from leader Ferrari.
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