Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global

Ricciardo expecting grid penalty at Monza

Daniel Ricciardo expects to take a grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix to maximise his Red Bull Formula 1 team's chances in the following race in Singapore.

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing

Sutton Images

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB13, Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing poses for a selfie photo, the fans
 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, signs autograhs for his fans
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB13

Red Bull has already predicted that Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen would receive a grid demotion at Monza as a consequence of his Spa engine failure last week.

Both Ricciardo and Verstappen are on their fourth internal combustion engines of the season, meaning the next change will trigger a grid penalty. Ricciardo is also on his fourth turbocharger.

Ricciardo said he would "most likely" get a grid penalty this weekend, and that it would be a strategic choice as Singapore's Marina Bay track is expected to be a better venue for Red Bull than power-dependent Monza.

"It's no secret Singapore is a circuit we're strong on," said Ricciardo. "I don't want to take any risks in Singapore and risk racing with an old engine or something.

"If we have to be strategic about it, then we will. We're not in a comfortable position now to be taking any risks with the reliability, so we'll play it safe."

Ricciardo admitted that Renault's poor reliability was now negating any progress it had made with horsepower.

"I think the progress has been hindered by reliability," he said. "If we had better reliability we could then start to turn it up more and more.

"That's slowed us down more than we would have liked. Obviously on top of the disappointment of the DNF is that it then kind of slows everything down for updates and development.

"Hopefully we have less of these issues coming up, but we're getting later in the season now and still having it. We thought we would have cleared this earlier."

Both Verstappen and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner were heavily critical of Renault after Verstappen's early failure in last weekend's Belgian GP.

Asked if Renault had apologised to him, Verstappen replied: "I don't need apologies, I want it to be addressed."

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Hamilton: No doubts about new Mercedes contract
Next article Sergio Perez on Force India F1 civil war: "We cannot afford to lose more points"

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global