Laurent Mekies acknowledges a “frustrating” weekend in Singapore
Daniel Ricciardo left by the back door, without saying goodbye to the official F1 team. A situation accepted by both parties, but which proved frustrating for everyone.
It was an open secret when arriving in the streets of Singapore: it would be the 257th and last Grand Prix of Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career. The signs were numerous but officially, nothing was confirmed and above all, nothing was announced. Yet, a few days later, the news was finally made public and the Australian disappeared from the radar through the back door.
Laurent Mekies, the leader of Racing Bulls, acknowledged last weekend in Austin that it had generated frustration within the team even though it had been planned by both parties ahead of the weekend: « It was frustrating. And yes, you are right, it was not ideal to spend the weekend this way. Firstly for him professionally and personally but also for the whole team around him. Daniel was aware. Indeed, we had discussions before the weekend. For different reasons, we chose, together, to approach this weekend without announcing it. And from there, we had to deal with it. It is a decision that, in hindsight, we might or might not take differently, but it is something that the team and the driver agreed to do. »
However, the Frenchman did not fail to point out that many farewells were published following the official announcement, by a large part of the paddock, which proves the special nature of Mister Smile: « He received a lot of love from the entire sport. This clearly shows that he is more than just a Formula 1 driver.
Now, he is focusing on boosting his new driver, Liam Lawson. Starting with a Sprint weekend is not the most obvious choice, but circumstances mean that the New Zealander is under less pressure: we had to change his power unit. This reduces the power level, as it is very difficult to score points starting from far back on the grid. Liam will therefore be able to use the entire weekend to ramp up and be ready for Mexico.
This will be necessary because Racing Bulls is engaged in a direct battle with Haas and Williams for the sixth place in the championship: « Currently, Haas and Williams are faster than us. So, we are in a defensive position. » He thus acknowledged that improvements were still needed to hope to maintain his three-point lead over Haas by the end of the season.
From our special correspondent in Austin
