‘It’s not really a gain’ – Daniel Ricciardo weighs in on ‘disappointing’ Oscar Piastri track limits decision

Daniel Ricciardo of VCARB has struggled with consistency this season

Daniel Ricciardo expressed his disappointment at seeing Oscar Piastri have his best lap deleted after a track limits infringement in Austrian Grand Prix qualifying.

Piastri was adjudged to have run marginally wide at Turn 6 on his final flying lap in Q3, even though changes had been made throughout the lap to ensure the gravel traps were a natural deterrent to gaining time.

Daniel Ricciardo: ‘Disappointing’ to see Oscar Piastri’s track limits call

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

That decision dropped the McLaren driver back from third to seventh on the grid, with Piastri calling the decision “embarrassing” after the session.

With a number of track changes made to ensure there were harder limits to reduce the number of violations this year – down from around 1,200 having been flagged in 2023- Ricciardo admitted his frustration at that moment for his compatriot.

“I just saw Oscar got his lap time deleted, that’s disappointing to see because the gravel’s there now,” Ricciardo told media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying.

“I confess I haven’t seen the replay, but I heard he got track limits for Turn 6.

“So if they’re doing the gravel, which I think is good, you probably then ignore the track limits because it’s not really a gain anymore.”

More from the Austrian Grand Prix weekend so far

 F1 starting grid: What is the grid order for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix?

 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

As for his own session, Ricciardo said: “Sometimes you can be upset if you lock up and you know you’ve left a tenth or something in a corner – the lap was pretty good.

“I was happy with the lap. Every lap, I was able just to find half a tenth, a tenth, so I feel like we were getting to a point where there wasn’t much left in it. Obviously, 10 milliseconds, that’s always there, but let’s say no bad feelings – just that bit of frustration to be so close, but happy with the progress since yesterday.

“We certainly seem better. I think yesterday was a lot, we were still trying a lot and then you have one set [of tyres] in Q1, so it was always going to be tricky.

“But today, I think having a little bit more of an understanding, having the race this morning, and then we had I think five runs in quali today.

“We used five softs; we were able to get the car in a better window. So still not quite a Q3 car, but we’re there.”

Read next: Austrian GP: Max Verstappen storms to pole position after closest Q1 in F1 history