The true impact of Daniel Ricciardo’s 3-place grid penalty after the Chinese GP has been confirmed. There has been confusion about how this controversial penalty will be applied. Initially, some interpreted the grid drop as being applicable to the Miami Sprint Race. However, it is now confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo will serve this penalisation at the Miami Grand Prix (the main race) on Sunday.
In many ways, last weekend was the 34-year-old’s best showing of 2024. He outqualified Yuki Tsunoda in both Friday and Saturday qualifying. The 34-year-old showed very encouraging pace in the VCARB 01 machine. Points were within reach on Sunday, at least until the Safety Car period.
In all likelihood, RB’s decision to keep Ricciardo on track with old mediums (whilst everyone behind stopped for fresh hards) threw away his chances of points anyway. However, his race ended emphatically as Lance Stroll rammed into the back of his car.
Stroll was swiftly handed a 10-second time penalty. Of course, this was of little consolation to the Australian – whose race was ruined by damage to his car.
To make matters worse, this incident also resulted in the 8-time winner receiving a penalty. During the chaos that followed the incident, Ricciardo made an overtake on Nico Hulkenberg.
FULL IMPACT OF RICCIARDO PENALTY
Although this was influenced by Stroll’s contact and the subsequent on-track mayhem, the RB driver was handed a penalty all the same. Additionally, two penalty points were applied to his license.
At first, it was assumed that Ricciardo’s saving grace would be that this grid drop would apply to the Miami Sprint Race. While far from ideal, this scenario would at least leave his Sunday race unaffected.
However, Chris Medland has confirmed that this sanction will be served on Sunday. This will not be welcome news to Laurent Mekies’ team, especially as the Faenza-based team gathered some momentum on Ricciardo’s side of the garage.
