Daniel Ricciardo receives late Red Bull boost after big DSQ decision at Belgian GP

VCARB’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Believing he had missed out on a deserved reward of points at Spa, Daniel Ricciardo would indeed make the top 10 after George Russell suffered disqualification.

P11 on the road, VCARB’s Ricciardo was set to be the highest of the non-points scorers at Spa, but the disqualification of Belgian Grand Prix winner Russell after the chequered flag meant that Ricciardo indeed picked up a point in P10.

George Russell’s loss is Daniel Ricciardo’s gain

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Russell saw his win expunged from the record books after his Mercedes W15 was found to be 1.5kg under the weight limit, promoting Ricciardo to P10 to score a point in the final race before the summer break, a pause in the action which could produce major implications for Ricciardo’s F1 career.

Ricciardo and Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson are contenders to replace the struggling Sergio Perez at Red Bull should they choose to axe the Mexican over the summer break. PlanetF1.com understands that Ricciardo and Lawson will feature in a VCARB filming day at Imola on July 31, with an eye to monitoring the pace of both.

And for Ricciardo, this third points finish in his last six races will do his Red Bull return chances no harm at all.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race, Ricciardo said he had expected to be in the points so was disappointed to initially miss out, Russell’s disqualification later promoting him to the top 10.

“It was hard because I knew some cars were going to try a one-stop,” he said.

“I didn’t really know my position during the race and I knew it would kind of all work out. And in my head, I was kind of saying, ‘Get a piece of [Lance] Stroll’. I know there’s some kind of quick cars not too far ahead.

“So, I really thought we would have ended up in the points.

“When I had [Esteban] Ocon behind me, I think that’s when I knew I was 10th and I was like, ‘Ah, I really thought I was maybe ninth’. Because I knew that holding him off was going to be tricky. I think he was strong all weekend and also, he just came out on fresher tyres.

“So once he got past, I knew we’d just missed out on points. I tried to stay with him, but look, put it this way, I think we had a really good race. I just think some other drivers also had a really good race.”

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Ricciardo was the only driver to start the race on soft tyres – much to his surprise – as he repeated his belief that he and VCARB drove a good race.

“I was very surprised we were the only one,” said Ricciardo in reference to starting on the softs.

“I think it obviously stopped us from maybe attempting a one-stop, but I was able to stay with the guys on mediums in the first stint, so for the two-stop it didn’t change too much in the end.

“I feel like every time we pitted, I think we were able to undercut a car and then get a bit of track position and hold it. So yeah, we started to make some moves, we got a couple of positions up, so I think we did have a good race, just unfortunately, didn’t get rewarded.”

With that reward ultimately arriving, Ricciardo moves up to 12 points for the F1 2024 campaign so far.

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