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Uncertainty regarding Ricciardo's retirement

Uncertainty regarding Ricciardo's retirement

15-11-2021 20:20 Last update: 20:48
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GPblog.com

Daniel Ricciardo's season has been strange. On the one hand, there was the victory in Monza, but on the other hand, he can just as well suffer from a failure like last weekend in Brazil. At Interlagos, the Australian seemed to be on his way to scoring points, until a defect forced him to retire. But what was it exactly?

Tear

As is often the case, the failure came almost out of nowhere and for McLaren the cause is not yet certain. During a first investigation on the circuit, McLaren discovered a crack in the chassis near the drive train. But whether that really was the problem, will probably only be clear in Qatar.

"We had a power loss on track," McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl told Motorsport.com. "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." So then it will also become clear whether a new chassis is necessary.

Confidence in good result

Ricciardo thought that if he hadn't encountered problems, he could have beaten Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc with a one-stop. "We knew they had to two-stop," the Australian said. "I think they had a bit more pace but maybe through strategy we could've disrupted them. But then we had a loss of power and had to retire the car. Definitely a shame, but it was a much more promising day than [Saturday]. We'll take the positives from that, and we've got another chance next week."

For McLaren, a good result in Qatar is a must. Ferrari got further ahead in Brazil in the constructors' standings. The difference is now 31.5 points in favour of the Italians.