Despite winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo entered the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix knowing he might have to take a penalty. Red Bull initially prompted that it was certain that he will be given a penalty to change the faulty MGU-K in his car. But now, it seems that they have devised a way to avoid it.
“Currently, no. I’ve been told there’s no penalty,” said Ricciardo.
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“If something happens tomorrow in practice and we’re forced to change something, then I’ll get a penalty, but for now we’ve got enough parts to run and if it runs reliably then we’ll do the whole weekend on it.”
The penalty, if applied, will be for using a third MGU-K for the season. If not this race, Ricciardo admitted, that it could be as early as the next one, the French Grand Prix.
“Yeah, I guess, it could come as soon as Paul Ricard,” said Ricciardo.
“When I heard whispers about a potential penalty here, I was at that point [saying] I’ll take it in Paul Ricard but not here.
“This is such a difficult circuit for overtaking and obviously having such good momentum at the moment, a penalty would really take a bit of wind out of our sails.
“If we can escape this weekend without it, I’d rather take it somewhere else.”
The decision to halt the penalty for the time being seems to be a strategic one, considering the nature of the circuit in Canada and the fact that Red Bull was really good on the hypersoft tires last race in Monaco.
“We’ll try and go as long as we can to delay it, because the earlier we take a penalty, then maybe [the risk] we have to take another one before the year is out [is increased],” said Ricciardo.
“But also, we were good on the hypersoft in Monaco and maybe it gives us another chance this weekend to have a strong race.
“We feel, on paper, this circuit should suit us more than maybe a couple of the others coming up.
“Winning two in a row would be nice, so we’ll try. Starting 15th, it would be very unlikely.”
