Daniel Ricciardo running "not worth the risk" after McLaren gearbox issue

Ricciardo, McLaren, Mexico — Photo: © LAT Images

Mexico City Grand Prix

Ricciardo running "not worth the risk" after McLaren gearbox issue

Ricciardo missed out on qualifying simulations in FP2

Ewan Gale

Saturday 6 November 2021 00:30

Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he failed to return to action after a gearbox issue in second practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix as it "wasn't worth the risk".

Ricciardo missed his entire qualifying simulation running in FP2 after McLaren found a problem with his practice gearbox that needed "analysing", setting the Australian firmly on the back foot heading into the weekend.

The timesheets did not reflect kindly on McLaren all day, with Ricciardo managing only 14th fastest in FP1 and Lando Norris just 12th quickest in the second session.

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In contrast, their rivals for third position in the constructors' standings in Ferrari comfortably had Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in the top 10 in both sessions.

Discussing why his practice was curtailed, Ricciardo explained: "We had an issue so came in and, let's say we had a few checks to go through so couldn't get back out and it wasn't worth the risk going back out.

"I got a few laps in on the hard and that was it so all of us have to get it all together tomorrow but we obviously have the morning session to get on top of it.

"It is definitely not written off yet. It gives us a bit more work to do but it is definitely not out of reach. We have got some pace to find, Lando's first run looked a little better in the afternoon so we will try to dissect that."

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has not been used since the last grand prix in 2019, with the facilities at the circuit utilised as a Covid hospital through the hardest periods of the global pandemic.

Assessing the surface, Ricciardo added: "Track conditions are certainly a bit slow.

"You could see in the morning there was a lot of dust on the track. We didn't come here last year so it has got two years worth of dust and dirt on it.

"Obviously, they are shorter practices now compared to 2019 so there is an hour less track time on Friday to clean the track. All these factors made it a little slippery.

"I think it will still be quite slippery in the morning but I will go out and hit it hard straight away."