Former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg has slammed McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo’s poor qualifying session for the Hungarian GP.
Many expected Ricciardo to carry the momentum from Silverstone and deliver another strong performance in Hungary. However, his struggles continued as he failed to make it into Q3, with Sebastian Vettel taking it by 0.08 seconds.
It was made worse by the fact that his teammate Lando Norris, with the same car, was in P2 at the end of Q2. Ricciardo, meanwhile, bottomed out at P11, 0.5 seconds behind Norris.
The Australian was upset with his performance, and said as much on the team radio. However, in a moment of madness, Sky did not censor Ricciardo’s words, which contained an F-bomb. When Ricciardo’s race engineer confirmed his position, the driver responded with, “Argh, okay, alright. F**k!”
Commentator David Croft was quick to apologize, but co-commentator Rosberg had other ideas. The German insisted those were the right choice of words. He then proceeded to blast Ricciardo’s performance in a short, yet painfully true analysis.
“Yeah, I mean, that is the right word. Because look at this, his (Ricciardo’s) teammate is P2, half a second up and he is 11th. That is another really bad day for Daniel,” Rosberg said on commentary.
Harsh truths
Rosberg did not mince his words at all, and it indeed was a bad day for the Australian. However, the upside of his position is that he is free to choose his rubber for the race. This means the chances of Ricciardo scoring a points finish is considerably high.
However, the Hungaroring is far from an overtaking heaven, with too many turns and barely any straights. Moreover, the searing temperature only makes it worse. If Ricciardo gets a good start, he may move up some places and finish strongly. With Carlos Sainz sitting a few places behind him, Ricciardo will aim to finish ahead of the Ferrari driver. This would aid McLaren in their midfield battle against Ferrari.
All eyes are on Daniel, then, and we will see if he can make Rosberg eat his words.