McLaren confident Ricciardo issues resolved for Saudi GP

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has revealed a sensor issue was to blame for Daniel Ricciardo's woeful Qatar Grand Prix.

Ricciardo finished 12th at the Losail International Circuit two weeks ago after being forced to save fuel for the majority of the race.

Fulfilling a promise to the media to provide details of the problem that plagued the Australian, Seidl explained the details despite conceding consumption levels were higher than expected.

“In the end, it was a combination of two things," explained Seidl. "First, on both cars, listening to the radios of many other cars, pretty much the same happened for all the other competitors.

“The fuel consumption of the race was higher than we all anticipated. Of course, the pace was probably a bit higher and with less tyre saving compared to what we had anticipated. So that was one reason for fuel saving on both cars.

“In addition, on Daniel’s side, we had an issue with the fuel consumption reading which then triggered additional big savings until we could solve the situation.

“That is what happened and that is why Daniel, with the big savings he had at the beginning of the race, it took away any chance for him to fight back and get into the points.

“The issue is understood and I’m confident we have it under control now.”

Asked if the reading had been essentially a "false positive", Seidl joked: “We don’t speak about false positives during this pandemic!

“In the end, it was a technical issue which was causing a fuel consumption reading which was incorrect.”

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