Ricciardo issues self-warning after ‘aggressive’ Monza error

Daniel Ricciardo insists he must “judge better” his approach to first laps in F1 races following his Italian Grand Prix penalty. 

Approaching the Ascari chicane on the opening lap at Monza, Ricciardo moved across and squeezed Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas onto the grass, picking up a five-second time penalty and one penalty point from the stewards. 

The Australian later sought out Hulkenberg to apologise for being “a prick”, but after several first-lap contacts in recent years, he admitted he needed to reassess his approach.

“It was frustrating because I have struggled on first laps this year,” Ricciardo told media including RacingNews365. 

“In the big picture, I don’t think I gained many positions at all on that one, so up until that point, it was going okay, and I was being a bit more aggressive.

“But maybe I was having a bit too much fun being aggressive and I got too aggressive. 

“I joke about it, but obviously I need to judge those things better and not ignore it. 

“But then beyond that, in the big picture, we weren’t quick enough, so without [that incident], we still wouldn’t have got points.”

Ricciardo’s mechanic error

Ricciardo’s misery in Monza was compounded when serving his five-second penalty at his first pit stop. 

A mechanic accidentally touched the front wing of the RB to steady it, before immediately realising his error. Ricciardo, though, was handed a further 10-second time penalty for not serving his five-second one correctly.

Even without those 15 seconds from Ricciardo’s elapsed race time, he would only have finished one place higher, above Franco Colapinto, and still 10 seconds outside the points. He accepted his fault for the situation.

“Of course, we will look at it, but if I left Nico a bit more room, we wouldn’t get a penalty and we don’t put ourselves in that position,” he said. 

“So I have to accept being a part of that, but as I said, I feel bad about the outcome, but I don’t feel bad about the approach.”