Drivers, especially those with experience of winning Grand Prix, are rarely fired at the end of the season, but this is exactly what happened to Daniel Ricciardo.
And although everything was predetermined, Ricciardo refused to put up with it. RB team leader Peter Bayer said in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport that Daniel hoped to turn the situation around until the last moment, but after being eliminated in the first part of qualifying in Singapore, the team made a difficult decision .
Peter Bayer: “We agreed with Daniel that we would not report this. We understood that the atmosphere in the team would be very difficult, but we did it to protect the driver. This was his wish.
He believed until the end that he would finish ahead in qualifying and show everyone what to do. I have worked in many sports and have never seen so much strength in athletes. When he dropped out in the first part of qualifying, it was a terrible moment. It was heard on the radio that his world had collapsed.
On Saturday we sat together in our office at 2 a.m. and asked him what we should do. He said we should just let him run the race. We gave him soft tires, which allowed him to set the fastest final lap time in Formula 1.
After the finish, the entire team lined up to greet him. If Daniel had driven all the way to Abu Dhabi, we would of course have celebrated his farewell with fireworks and a photo on the grid, just like we did with Kimi Raikkonen. We all wanted it, but the decision had already been made.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
