F1 News: FIA announce Daniel Ricciardo penalty verdict after Chinese GP disaster

Daniel Ricciardo, VCARB, Visa, RB, FIA, 2024, Social — Photo: © IMAGO

Chinese Grand Prix

FIA announce Ricciardo penalty verdict after Chinese GP disaster

The Australian's weekend could hardly have gone worse

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Sunday 21 April 2024 14:21

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Daniel Ricciardo's season went from bad to worse at the Chinese Grand Prix, and the FIA have piled further misery on the Australian's weekend after the race.

The VCARB driver's race ended in disaster through no fault of his own on Sunday, getting hit from behind by Lance Stroll at a safety car restart and being forced to retire due to the damage to the rear of his car in a race won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

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Shortly before that, however, Ricciardo had passed Nico Hulkenberg under safety car conditions – an incident which was noted by the stewards and which, after the race, they applied a 10-second penalty for.

However, due to Ricciardo's retirement, that penalty (unlike Fernando Alonso's sprint race penalty on Saturday) will be deferred to the next race in Miami, where he will receive a three-place grid penalty. He also receives two penalty points on his license.

The retirement was the Australian's second in a row

FIA's Ricciardo verdict

The FIA released their judgement in a statement, saying: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 3 (Daniel Ricciardo), the driver of Car 27 (Nico Hulkenberg), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 3 overtook Car 27 while the race was under Safety Car conditions.

"The driver of Car 3 admitted that he overtook Car 27 deliberately but he explained that he felt that he could do so because Car 27 had overtaken him under safety car before on Lap 28. We note that Car 27 was permitted to overtake Car 3 on Lap 28 because of Article 55.8.

"There was no justifiable basis for Car 3 to overtake Car 27 while the race was under Safety Car conditions. We accordingly imposed a 10 second time penalty on Car 3. As Car 3 was unable to serve the penalty due to retirement, we imposed a 3-grid place penalty to Car 3 for the next race in which the driver participates."