Ricciardo likely to take 5-place penalty in Brazil

Daniel Ricciardo has been hit with yet more bad news as his time at Red Bull draws to a close as the team have revealed that they’ll have to change the turbocharger on his car, which is likely to drop him back five places at Interlagos.

Ricciardo has retired eight times this season, the most by any driver including Fernando Alonso, which says a lot about his luck. In fact, it is the same number of retirements that Valtteri Bottas has suffered in his entire career, in his time at both Williams and Mercedes.

The Australian is known to be one of the most cheerful persons on the grid but a number like that can dampen anyone’s spirits and Ricciardo is no different. He seemed to have put his woes behind when he grabbed pole at the last minute in Mexico and the joy was palpable in his radio exchanges.

He lost out on the start in the main race on Sunday, dropping to third behind teammate, Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton, before the first turn itself but was still able to hold Vettel and the chasing pack for quite a while until the Ferrari got past him when he was held up by backmarkers.

Ricciardo fought back to third after the round of pit-stops when smoke started bellowing out the back of his car and Red Bull later disclosed that one of the supplier parts on the clutch of his car gave way.

He was understandably frustrated and gave an angry post-race interview, where he said he did not see the point of driving the car anymore and handed it to Gasly, who has been promoted from Toro Rosso in his place.

However, he later clarified that he would like to bow out on a good note, which is looking increasingly unlikely as the final two races come nearer. Both Brazil and Abu Dhabi have not been known to favour Red Bull and the grid penalty only compounds their problems.