McLaren reveal Daniel Ricciardo debut damaged by Pierre Gasly collision

Ricciardo at the Bahrain GP — Photo: © LAT Images

McLaren

McLaren reveal Ricciardo debut damaged by Gasly collision

Ricciardo finished seventh, one place down on his grid position

Sam Hall

Tuesday 30 March 2021 10:25

McLaren has revealed Daniel Ricciardo's Bahrain Grand Prix was impacted by damage caused from an early collision with Pierre Gasly.

Ricciardo, who finished seventh on his McLaren debut after starting from sixth, said after the race he had been unable to unlock the potential of the MCL35M.

Following a safety car restart on lap four, the left-rear of Ricciardo's McLaren was clipped by AlphaTauri driver Gasly who came off worse in losing his front wing and being forced to pit for a replacement whilst also sustaining damage to the floor.

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Although minor, McLaren has confirmed a post-race investigation revealed the Australian had not escaped the incident without penalty.

Team principal Andreas Seidl said: “Post-race we found damage to Daniel’s floor from the impact of Pierre running into the back of his car at the beginning of the race.

"The level of damage cost a considerable amount of downforce. Despite the performance loss Daniel used his experience to cope with the issues and score important points for the team. We now look forward to the next race.”

On the whole, Ricciardo declared himself "pretty happy" with the weekend although claimed the race was difficult.

"If I just focus on the race itself, I struggled quite a bit in the race actually," confirmed Ricciardo.

“I couldn’t really extract the pace from the car and when I did I could do it for one or two laps and then it would quickly drop off again.

"I struggled then with the tyres and the balance. I just didn’t feel like I had a good race performance, race package.

“Obviously, it’s still new to me so I’m sure there is going to be a lot of homework for me to do personally to keep getting better and I made plenty of notes through the race of what I feel [in] the car and what was holding me back.

“I’ll give feedback, I’m sure they will give feedback to me and we will come to Imola in better shape but I think if seventh is a poor race, call it that, we’re looking alright.”