The explanations for Ricciardo and Piastri’s delay at the restart of the São Paulo Grand Prix

The São Paulo Grand Prix did not show any mercy to the Australian drivers. Right from the first turn, Albon and Magnussen made mistakes and crashed into the safety barriers. The accident, caused by Nico Hülkenberg, sent debris into the pack of cars behind, affecting cars including those of Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri.

The McLaren and AlphaTauri drivers suffered damage to their rear wings during the incident and, thinking they would be out of the race, returned to their garages at the end of the first lap, already under the safety car.

“The start of the race was difficult. I saw a big accident in front of me, and there were a lot of debris. I felt like I was getting away from it, but at one point, I saw a tire flying in the air, like a frisbee, getting closer. I checked my rearview mirrors and saw that the tire had hit and damaged my rear wing,” explains Ricciardo.

Due to the red flag, I returned to the pits, where the team did an excellent job repairing the car to make it ready to resume the race. Unfortunately, I was told that Oscar (Piastri) and I would be a lap behind and that we had to restart from the pits.

Indeed, during their pit stops at the end of the first lap while the others did one more lap behind the safety car before returning to the pits themselves during the red flag. Since both drivers were in the pits when the race was stopped, the rule requires them to restart from the pit lane and wait for the last driver to cross the start line before they can start themselves.

To avoid this, the drivers should have returned to the track before being lapped or before the red flag was triggered. Which was not the case.

Ricciardo expresses his opinion on how he finds the rule. « I think first and foremost, it revealed a flaw in the regulation because I never had the impression that we had already completed a lap of the race. You were already starting the race with a lap behind », and then adding, «Oscar and I were victims of it ».

Okay, we are two, but if 15 cars were damaged and had to do what we did, would they start a race with 15 cars one lap behind? I don’t think so. So I think they need to be a little more open-minded. It was very frustrating.

A decision all the more frustrating for the AlphaTauri driver, as he believes his team was « really fast today. We stayed behind Yuki, helping him score points, but when we had some clear air, I felt that the pace I showed was very strong. I think we made good progress throughout the weekend, and I’m happy about it, because this circuit never suited me ».

I think I could have contributed a lot to the team by scoring points today if only we hadn’t restarted the race with a lap behind. Now I’m looking forward to being in Las Vegas.