"Seemed pretty f***** up" - Daniel Ricciardo on safety car restart confusion during F1 season finale

Daniel Ricciardo was heard cursing on team radio after a chaotic finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday. Ricciardo, like the rest of the field, was confused over the safety car restart which occurred on the last lap of the race. The Australian driver was heard talking to his race engineer Tom Stallard throughout the duration of the safety car and expressed a sigh of relief for not being involved with the lapped car confusion that took place at the end of the race.

Lewis Hamilton was comfortably on his way to win his eighth world title when a sudden crash by Nicholas Latifi provoked a safety car. Teams were initially told that lapped cars would not be allowed to unlap themselves before the safety car restart, but the decision was soon changed by the FIA.

Daniel Ricciardo was immediately told to pit for new soft tires when the safety car was deployed, but due to the changed decision, couldn't capitalize on fresher tires. The confusion suddenly saw Max Verstappen on the rear wing of Lewis Hamilton at the safety car restart on fresher and softer tires. Verstappen clinched his first title victory in the sport with less than a lap to go. Ricciardo was not one in the group of cars allowed to unlap themselves.

Ricciardo said to his race engineer after crossing the checkered flag:

"I've got no idea what they did with letting cars through. Obviously I wasn't really in that anyways, but it seemed strange. I am glad I'm not a part of that. Whatever just happened, seemed pretty f***** up."

Daniel Ricciardo finished the final race of the season in P12 and placed eighth in the drivers' standings. His McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished the championship in P6.

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Daniel Ricciardo has a tough year at McLaren

Despite winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Daniel Ricciardo had an underwhelming year for McLaren. The driver finished eighth in the drivers' standings on Sunday, with nine finishes outside the points. The only podium the Australian driver achieved in the 2021 season of F1 was at Monza, where the team from Woking got their only 1-2 of the year.

The Australian also commented on the problems he has faced with regards to adjusting to his McLaren F1 car and that it took him a long time to tweak his style of driving to suit the car's feel. He commented on his Monza win, saying:

"After the fact of Monza, it does a lot of things. Things like belief and self-doubt and all that is definitely questioned in the first half of the year at times, and yeah, to just fight some of those feelings. But then to make Monza happen the way it did is reassuring as I kinda proved to myself that everything I still believed in was possible."

Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren will be hoping the 2022 F1 cars suit his style of driving.