Daniel Ricciardo called his 2018 victory as redemption for 2016. But it wasn’t what we would call a comfortable or easy victory. He had dominated all sessions prior to the race and carried the pace into the race as well, before he reported a loss of engine power on lap 26. While the damage to his power unit was evident with him failing to pull off from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, no one knew the extent of his troubles. Everyone knew the troubles won’t be getting any better for him, courtesy his racing engineer.
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Post race, Ricciardo elaborated that he was stuck with just 6 gears and had a loss of MGU-K. How he managed to maintain the lead despite the problems is something only he can explain. But now Red Bull has revealed the real extent of the problems with his car.
“He has lost about 25% of the power of the engine,” Horner told Sky. “And then because of the way these engines work, his rear brake temperatures are going through the roof.
“We saw it with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg a few years back in Montreal.
“He is having to cool the brakes, he is having to cool the car, he is having to lift off to do that. He is having Sebastian Vettel breathing down his neck. He cannot make a mistake. He cannot lock a wheel up.
“He is dealing with all the switch changes and all the stuff that he has got to manage. And he totally nailed it. He was the coolest guy out there today.”
Horner further revealed that the team was about to retire Daniel Ricciarod.
“They’re telling me on the intercom they’ll have to retire the car in one or two laps,” Horner added.
“I said ‘Look, we’re in the lead of the Monaco GP, we’re keeping going’.
“Moving the switches around, driving to save fuel, brakes, tyres, asking what’s going on with Max’s tyres. He drove an unbelievable race this weekend.”
The loss of MGU-K meant that he was down by about 160 bhp of power. Coupled with heating breaks and tire degradation, Ricciardo definitely drove a race that will be remembered for years to come.
With his victory, he now stands third in the championship with as many victories as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
