McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo has fallen into a whirl of controversy following his recent comments on the Formula 1 social media team.
The Australian had recently called the social media handlers of F1 “f**king idiots”, owing to the fact that their list of best moments from the 2020 season predominantly included only crashes.
Ricciardo feels that there were a lot of moments that could come under this category, and that it is childish to only glorify crashes.
At the Emilia-Romagna GP press conference, Ricciardo stuck to this point, but felt that his choice of words could have been much better.
“I certainly gotta be better with my choice of words,” he said. “Certainly if I could, let’s say take that quote back, I would. It was too aggressive. I should know that as well being in the sport, probably as long as I have.
“And even if I feel other times, it might be out of context, I know it’s gonna get pushed. So, I should do better with that.”
This is not the first time that Ricciardo has spoken against what F1 broadcasts to the public. Just last season, F1 ended up showing the terrifying Romain Grosjean crash many times during the live telecast.
Ricciardo said that he was disgusted and disappointed that such sensitive content was shown to the public.
The Australian used the press conference as a second chance to better express himself.
“I felt last year was such an amazing year for F1. There were so many different podium getters, there were a lot of exciting races. I certainly wouldn’t put it under a ‘boring season’,” he said.
“And I felt like there was probably more room to expose the highs of the sport and the great achievements of a lot of individual drivers, individual performances.
“I felt like there were better stories to be told as opposed to just crashes. I feel that we’re better than just showing crashes.”
Will F1 stick to broadcasting the ‘views-generating’ content and prove Ricciardo’s point? Let us know what you think in the comments below!