Ricciardo: 'We like the risk, but it's not worth the death'

It was a much-heard reproach Sunday afternoon. That it was okay to drive, because they were the twenty best drivers in the world, weren't they? And in the past, they used to drive in weather like this. Daniel Ricciardo however sees things differently.

Loving the risk

In the Independent, Ricciardo responded to comments that it would have been normal to drive in the same conditions in the past. "There is a change in the way of thinking. I wasn't there at the time when it was normal for deaths to occur in the sport. I'm sure it was hard to accept, but because it happened regularly, it was sort of expected. And with what I know now, would I have raced in the 60s? No. It's a sport."

"We love the risk, but when it comes to life or death, it's not worth it," continued the McLaren driver who saw his teammate Lando Norris crash hard on Saturday. "We are still competing in a dangerous sport and playing on the edge of danger, but there is danger and being unsafe." Spa-Francorchamps is considered one of the most dangerous circuits in Formula One. A total of 23 drivers have crashed here.

Simple physics

The Australian also refutes comments about the twenty best drivers to drive in the rain. "The simplest answer and I'm not trying to sound smart, is that it's just physics, simple physics that the car won't stay on the road. Could we go slower? I suppose we could. But then the problem is that because we're driving slower, there will be drivers who do something that's beyond the physical capabilities of the car and then you get a bigger incident because the speed is lower. In a way that creates more problems." With fourth-place Ricciardo achieved his best classification of the season in Belgium.