McLaren has revealed the reason behind Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the first race he’s failed to finish since the start of the 2020 season.
The Australian was running eighth at the time, and eyeing off a potential top-five finish, when he was forced out of the race.
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A loss of power was given as the reason for his retirement, but team boss Andreas Seidl has disclosed that it wasn’t simply a problem with the Mercedes power unit.
“We had a power loss on track,” he said.
“In the initial investigation we found a technical issue, a crack on the chassis side of the power unit installation, which we need to now investigate. I can give you a better update next week in Qatar.”
It was a miserable race for McLaren, with Ricciardo’s teammate Lando Norris finishing 10th after picking up a puncture when he touched Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the run to the first corner.
That sent Norris to the back of the field, and he was only able to salvage a single world champinship point.
It means Ferrari now leads McLaren by 31.5 points in the battle for third place in the Constructors’ Championship, with just three races to go. The difference between third and fourth is worth millions of dollars in prizemoney.
“He (Norris) had a great launch. And I think Carlos had quite a bad start,” Seidl explained.
“Lando had to go somewhere and on the outside it’s very tight out there. I think he simply ran out of space and unfortunately touched the front wing of Carlos, causing the puncture. It was an unlucky racing incident.
“In terms of the recovery drive, the car was damaged. He lost quite a bit of downforce on the rear axle, some damage from the puncture I think. Then he did a great recovery drive.”
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