Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo put together a historic performance at Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix only to have his second place finish stripped hours after the opening leg of the 2014 Formula 1 season had ended.
Ricciardo became the first Aussie to collect a podium finish on home soil after holding off McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen to claim second behind Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.
But the FIA (International Federation of Automobiles) stripped the 24-year-old of his achievement four hours after the Albert Park race for breaching fuel flow regulations- a new rule that has seen the amount of fuel allowed drop from 170kg/h down to 100kg/h.
Daniel Ricciardo Stripped Of Pole Position At Australian Grand Prix
Ricciardo receives none of the blame for the disqualification- that rests with his Red Bull team, who apparently ignored warnings from FIA representatives over the course of the weekend.
“These (fuel) sensors were faulty on Friday, the FIA and Red Bull says ‘It’s not working, put in a new one for Saturday’,” Australian GP chief executive Andrew Wastacott explained on Monday.
“They put in a new one for Saturday, that didn’t work, they went back to the one on Friday.”
Red Bull believe they are a chance to have the FIA decision overturned, saying that they and partner Renault “are confident the fuel supplied to the engine is in full compliance with the regulations.”
Former F1 team owner Paul Stoddart also believes Red Bull will have their finish and points returned at the end of what could be a long process.
Stoddard told radio station 3AW Melbourne that even if Ricciardo had breached fuel flow regulations, he had not taken advantage of what the rule intends to stamp out- a driver gaining an advantage by using an extra boost of fuel.
“Daniel did not gain any advantage and that will be proven by Red Bull in their appeal,’’ the former Minardi team owner said.
“They’ll be able to prove that he didn’t gain an advantage, that the team felt what they did was right, that they were following their own sensor from the actual fuel injection system on the engine.
“And the Renault engineers would’ve known exactly how much fuel was going into that engine.
“We’re talking teams with budgets of $400-$500 million here – they have far better equipment than the FIA.”
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Photo: Peter Fox/Getty Images
