Daniel Ricciardo was given a five-second time penalty during the Russian Grand Prix. Realizing that he was guilty of the penalty himself, he responded as follows: “Okay, I’ll go faster.” But did he really do that?
Formula 1 has made an analysis of the Australian’s lap times. On lap 28, he was told he would get the extra seconds added to his finish time. With Charles Leclerc behind him, he had to build up a buffer in order not to end up behind the Ferrari driver in the final classification.
As can be seen in these graphs, drivers gradually set faster lap times during a race. Because the cars consume fuel, they are getting lighter and lap times are therefore reduced.
But as soon as the Renault driver hears that he has been punished, we see a clear difference; where the lap time is around 101.0s first, it is around 99.4s on average after the post.
Ricciardo on his gas
Ricciardo’s driving behavior was also looked at. Ten laps before his engineer’s announcement, for example, he clocked an average of 206 kilometers per hour, and was full throttle for 52.2% of the lap. After the penalty, that average speed was 210 kilometers per hour with 57.2% of the lap full throttle.
Once again, fuel consumption and tire degradation have to be taken into account, but the medium suggests that Ricciardo really wanted to make up for his mistake. My engineer told me about the penalty and I said I would go faster. It’s that easy, I think. ‘ (Photo: Renault Sport Media)
