Daniel Ricciardo punching the wall in Austin not a one-off occurrence during 2018

Daniel Ricciardo’s last season with Red Bull Racing was not one he is unlikely to look back at and miss anytime soon. He amassed eight retirements in 21 races, something he would not be looking to repeat.

Daniel has been racing for the team since 2014 and those five years have resulted in seven Grands Prix wins, three pole positions and a multitude of championship points. Two of those seven wins and pole positions came during 2018, his final year with the energy drinks team, but the euphoria came with a pinch of salt.

Earlier this year, Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, revealed that Daniel punched a hole in the wall after a retirement curtailed his US Grand Prix. During Red Bull’s On the Sofa video, the Australian has now disclosed that he did something similar on two other occasions in 2018.

Apart from the race in Austin, where an Energy Store failure marred his day, Ricciardo put his elbow through the door in Melbourne. The first race of the year was spoiled for the Australian before it even began when he received a three place grid penalty for not slowing down sufficiently during free practice.

The next race did not turn out any better for the 29-year-old as he had to retire after the first lap due to an electrical failure. This time, his knee ended up going through the door.

“It all started in Melbourne before the season even started. In practice I got the penalty for not slowing enough for that red flag so that started with putting my elbows through the door of my room,” said Ricciardo.

“A week later I tried to channel that energy into Bahrain and my race finished after one lap, so I put my knee through the door in that one and it kind of spiralled. And there was the fist [through the wall] in Austin, and Austin was the worst one. Austin, I don’t know why, I just reached a real low.”

The eight DNFs during the season would have been a hard pill to swallow, but the Australian would be looking to put it past him and focus on starting afresh with Renault.