Daniel Ricciardo had "no idea" he had a 34-race finishing streak before Brazil Grand Prix retirement

McLaren Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo's streak of 34 consecutive finishes since 2020 came to an end at the Brazilian Grand Prix. On track for P7, a loss of power caused by a crack in the chassis forced him to retire.

Afterward, the 32-year-old explained he "had no idea" of the streak and was thrilled to find out about it. Daniel Ricciardo's last retirement was at the Austrian Grand Prix over a year ago in July 2020 due to overheating. He was driving for Renault F1 at the time.

Speaking at the driver's press conference ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo said:

I had no idea that I had had a streak like that...which is, I guess, good. This sport, we know so many things can happen, so to have a streak like that, you know, I think that it had a good run. You never want to have a retirement of course, but yeah, I think we've had a pretty clean run of late.

Ever since Daniel Ricciardo's glorious win in Monza — and a strong P2 for Lando Norris — McLaren have undoubtedly struggled to keep up with Ferrari in the fight for third place in the constructors' championship. However, in the unpredictable world of F1, McLaren still have a chance of taking the win.

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Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris preview battle with Ferrari at Qatar

A rather tough weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix that saw Norris score a single point with his P10 result put McLaren 31.5 points behind Ferrari.

Contact between former teammate Lando Norris and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in Turn 1 at Interlagos forced Norris to the back of the grid, leading to a difficult grind back up to P10. With both Ferraris scoring strong points in the last few races, there's no doubt that the battle for third is now strongly in favor of the Italian team.

Despite being disappointed on having missed out on seven crucial points against their close rivals for third place in the constructor's championship, Daniel Ricciardo believes "it's not over until it is over".

Norris, too, expressed hope, saying:

Of course it's possible. But it's obviously getting harder, and realistically, we are in a much more difficult position than we have been all season.

With three races to go, a 31.5-point gap, four sensational drivers and two legendary teams, the battle for third in the constructor's championship will be one to look out for.