Daniel Ricciardo had a disappointing outing at the 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which included an untelevised 41-second-long pitstop.
Even though all pitstops made by drivers are shown during the live telecast, Ricciardo's lengthy pitstop went under the radar. After the race, on-board footage during his pitstop made the rounds online.
In the video, we see the pit crew effortlessly replace new front tires, indicating that the issue was with the car's rear tires. The stopwatch keeps ticking as the rest of the pit crew struggles to fit new rear tires.
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In total, the pitstop took 41.42 seconds to complete. Daniel Ricciardo's race engineer apologized for the slow pitstop on the radio but did not receive a response from the driver.
Even before the poor pitstop, the Australian driver was struggling in Saudi Arabia. In two out of three practice sessions, he was slower than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. He only managed to secure P14 in the qualifying session and ended up in P16 in the Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo addresses subpar performance at the 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian GP
Daniel Ricciardo reflected on the 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian GP with a heavy heart.
The Australian had a poor race weekend, where he was mostly behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in various sessions. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, he said:
“Yeah, I mean, we, like, simply we just lacked load this weekend, just in general. So then when you get behind another car, it's even, you know, exaggerated more. And it kind of exploits even more of a weakness. So it was tricky," Ricciardo said.
The 'Honey Badger' also said that he felt helpless in an underperforming car and was waiting for the weekend to be over.
"Yeah just a tough one. One of those ones you just hope that it's over. Look I'm glad I'm back on the grid and all that so I don't want to be like ‘ah I just wanted to see the chequered flag’. I'm not in the mindset I was a couple of years ago but yeah just knowing that we don't quite have underneath us what we should that's where you feel a little bit helpless,” he added.
After the first two races of the 2024 F1 season, Daniel Ricciardo had not scored any drivers' championship points.
