McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, in a moment of frustration, angrily insulted Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, calling him a “f**king c**khead.”
Ricciardo was optimistic about sneaking into the top 10, until the Hungarian GP had other ideas. At Turn 1, a number of cars collided and spun out, including that of the Australian’s.
Ricciardo’s teammate Lando Norris was the first victim, who lost control after being backended by Valtteri Bottas. On the other side, Lance Stroll collided with Leclerc, who met Norris. The Ferrari driver was helpless as his car hit Ricciardo’s, who spun and faced the opposite direction at the end of it all.
Ricciardo was mad at what had happened, and sounded very angry on radio. Even though Stroll was the culprit, Ricciardo had seen a Ferrari hit him. Accordingly, he insulted and swore at Leclerc on radio.
“I got hit! F**king c**khead!” he exclaimed.
Ricciardo’s race engineer immediately interjected, asking him if the car was okay. He also asked if Ricciardo could continue, something he didn’t answer properly.
“I don’t know! He hit me pretty big. I will see,” was all he could muster, still seething at what had happened.
Not their finest hour
Ricciardo has built some momentum at Silverstone, and looked set to carry it forward in Budapest. Instead, a calamity of collisions shattered that dream, and he didn’t finish in the points. Even though he was 10th for most of the race, Max Verstappen pipped him to it towards the end of the race.
The incident was also a blow for McLaren. Until Hungary, the constructor had finished in the points every race. With Norris out and Ricciardo finishing outside the top 10, it marked the end of the point-scoring streak. It was made worse by the fact that Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished with points, making the gap between Ferrari and McLaren incredibly small.
McLaren will look to bounce back at Spa. At the heart of the challenge for P3 in the Constructor’s Championship will be Ricciardo and Norris. The Australian needs to shake off this unfortunate incident and revert to his Silverstone form.
Read more: “Another bad day”: Rosberg slams Ricciardo’s poor qualifying session for Hungarian GP