Nov.15 (GMM) Daniel Ricciardo by no means gave up on his Method 1 race seat till the final second, in response to RB CEO Peter Bayer.
Most of the common Australian driver’s followers had been livid that crew proprietor Purple Bull stored secret the information that Ricciardo, 35, would get replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore GP – when it was apparent to virtually everybody.
Bayer, although, mentioned it was Ricciardo himself who requested the crew to carry again the official affirmation of his ousting.
“We had agreed with Daniel that we might not talk it,” he instructed Auto Motor und Sport.
“We knew that it might look a bit odd, however we additionally did it to guard our driver. It was his want,” Bayer added.
In response to Bayer, Ricciardo clung to the concept he would possibly be capable of carry out so effectively in Singapore that Purple Bull may need a change of coronary heart. Different rumours recommend a race win or podium in Singapore may have triggered contract clauses that assured that he would be capable of race on.
“He believed till the very finish that he would end on the entrance in qualifying and present everybody what he may do,” mentioned Bayer.
“I’ve by no means seen such psychological energy in an athlete as this individual has. And I’ve been in lots of sports activities.”
Sadly, Singapore – Ricciardo’s final race in F1 – was not an excellent weekend for the motive force.
“It was a horrible second when he was eradicated in Q1,” mentioned Bayer. “You can already hear on the radio that his world had collapsed.
“We then sat collectively in our workplace at two within the morning and requested him what we should always do now. He instructed us we should always simply let him drive the race. He simply didn’t need any fuss.”
Ultimately, Ricciardo was tearful after the Singapore GP evening race on Sunday – however it was nonetheless a number of days earlier than Purple Bull lastly confirmed that Lawson could be in his cockpit for the rest of the season.
A lot of his followers had been livid with Purple Bull.
“As a crew, we stood up for him,” Bayer insists. “If Daniel had stayed till Abu Dhabi, after all we might have celebrated his farewell with fireworks and photographs on the grid, like what occurred with (Kimi) Raikkonen. That’s what everybody would have needed.”
He additionally factors out that it was Purple Bull who really gave Ricciardo a second probability to shine in Method 1 after being axed by McLaren, additionally for poor efficiency, on the finish of 2022.
“We gave him one other probability that no person thought doable,” mentioned Bayer. “It was necessary for us that on the finish of the day we may look within the mirror and say that we did the correct factor for him – even when the entire world and his 9 million Instagram followers had been bashing us.”
