Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo reveals costly engine error

Daniel Ricciardo says an engine mode error from Red Bull cost him a chance of qualifying third for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel took third place with a 1:15.849, while Ricciardo took fourth place, 0.2s slower than the Ferrari. While the result is Ricciardo’s best qualifying of the season he says a mix-up on the pit wall left him in the wrong engine mode at the start of his lap and cost him crucial time on his final run.

“Pit wall thought I was in a different engine mode, which I wasn’t, so then when they’ve told me to make the standard change it’s put us out of the correct one,” Ricciardo said. “So then starting the lap I could feel the power was down. So I realised we were in the wrong one so I’ve turned it back but it’s only made the switch too late.

“Long story short, before Turn 1 we were 0.2s down and that was that. It was all a bit late. Normally I was getting the call to make whatever switches I need to make around Turn 16 and that was fine, it was giving me enough time, but this call came late, in between the second-last and last corner, just after Rascasse.

“So I quickly got on the switches but coming out of the last corner I could feel the power wasn’t right so I’ve then tried to figure it out and it’s kicked in but it was too late. I was in sixth gear, getting in to Turn 1 wasn’t even in seventh.

“It’s free lap time lost so a bit frustrating. It’s the last place you want to have those errors. Could be third today so that’s probably the biggest frustration, we know it could have been better.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.