Daniel Ricciardo criticises F1 for publicizing crashes

Daniel Ricciardo called Formula 1 "idiots" for publicizing crashes

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, who has criticized Formula 1 in the past for broadcasting replays of Romain Grosjean’s crash, has once again expressed his concern over the sport and Netflix repeating the same. The cheerful and lighthearted Australian voiced his feelings to Ziggo Sport about the broadcast replays during the Bahrain GP and in an exclusive interview to Square Mile, criticized the sport for promoting crashes on social media.

After the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ricciardo told Ziggo Sport: “I want to express my disgust and disappointment with F1. The way Grosjean's incident was broadcast over and over, the replays, it was completely disrespectful and inconsiderate for his family, for all our families watching. We are going to [be going] racing again in an hour and every time we look at the TV, it's a ball of fire and his car is cut in half. We can see that tomorrow. We don’t need to see that today. For me, it was entertainment and they are playing with all our emotions and I thought it was pretty disgusting. Hopefully, some other drivers have spoken up but if that is not how we all really feel, I will be very surprised.”

The Australian even approached Formula 1’s head of marketing Ellie Norman to express his views on the incident:

“She was very understanding and appreciative and accepted my concerns as well," said Ricciardo. "She did not push back; she was just trying to listen and learn how they can maybe do things differently. But she also talked me through the reasons why they broadcast what they did. I'm sure there are some things we can take from it.”

In an exclusive interview with British publication Square Mile, Ricciardo said: “I think last year, F1 put on their social channels, like, ‘top 10 moments of the year’ or something, and eight of the ten were crashes. I was just like, you guys are f***ing idiots. Maybe 12-year-old kids want to see that kind of content, and that’s cool because they don’t know any better, but we’re not kids. Just do better, guys. Do better than that.”

The Square Mile interviewer also criticized Netflix’s portrayal of the sport in Drive to Survive. Both Ricciardo and the author of the article have decoded some of the dramatized moments of the series and conceded that it is like “another reality show”.

"Man on Fire," the Drive to Survive episode featuring Grosjean’s crash has been widely criticized by audiences as they show the driver extracting himself from a car split in half, after 28 seconds, far from the reality where the Frenchman had walked out of the car within seconds of it bursting into flames. Ricciardo’s criticism of the incident comes with empathy for the drivers' families and audiences watching it.

While Formula 1 has gained popularity for its social media engagement and connection to its audiences through the Netflix series, the downside of dramatizing the sport has not impressed the purists, core motorsport enthusiasts, and drivers like Ricciardo.