Daniel Ricciardo to Start From the Back in Monza

As if things could not get any worse for Daniel Ricciardo, he will start from the back in Monza. Ricciardo was clobbered from behind by Fernando Alonso as his McLaren flew over the top of Charles Leclerc’s Sauber.

The impact ripped the rear wing off Ricciardo’s Red Bull and pushed him forward into Kimi Raikkonen. This resulted in a right rear puncture for Raikkonen’s Ferrari. The subsequent damage eventually forced the veteran Finn to retire.

“It all happened pretty quick but what I remember was getting a hit initially, then looking (in the mirror), and then I’m in the back of Kimi on the exit,” Ricciardo explained.

“I remember sliding and the next minute I was in the back of Kimi. Just a Turn 1 incident.

“I don’t know who caused it, but I guess then the consequence was getting in the back of Kimi, so apologies to him if (his retirement) was related to me.”

Ricciardo made it back to the pits where the Red Bull mechanics set to work on replacing the rear wing.

With the Safety Car out for several laps to clean up the debris, the team was hoping to be able to repair Ricciardo’s car and send him out without losing a lap, but fell just short of doing so.

“The rear wing was pretty much ripped off and the mechanics tried to get me back out there before we went a lap down; we just missed that but they did all they could,” he said.

“We tried to wait for a Safety Car because then we would’ve got the lap back and could get back on the lead lap, but we couldn’t just keep racing and hoping until the end, so we chose to retire with 14 laps remaining to save mileage on the engine and gearbox.

“After the rear wing change there was still some damage on my car as they had to fix it so quickly, we overtook quite a few cars but we weren’t really that fast and we were just circulating.

“Just one of those Sundays I guess.”

Now, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed that both Red Bulls will take an engine penalty at the Italian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, who finished third at Spa-Francorchamps, has enough engines left in his allocation that he is expected to avoid a penalty.

Ricciardo won’t be so lucky as he used three of every power unit component. In using a fourth, he will incur an automatic 10-place grid penalty, with an another five added on for each additional ‘fourth’ component.

“We will be trying to get ourselves on the best footing really,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.

“Daniel is going to be taking an engine penalty for sure next weekend. Max will be taking his third unit as well there, hopefully without penalty.

“So we’re going to try and get ourselves into the best situation we can going to Singapore, which is probably our next chance of being able to give Ferrari and Mercedes a harder time.”