Daniel Ricciardo believes the most difficult part of the Brazilian Grand Prix was the poor visibility with the horrible weather conditions.
The Red Bull Racing driver qualified in sixth at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, but with treacherous conditions he finished in eighth. Ricciardo also endured a five second time penalty, when he pitted when the pit lane was closed after Marcus Ericsson brought out the safety car.
The conditions brought out many yellow and red flags, with teams unable to predict what was going to happen next, and this led for a frustrating Grand Prix for Ricciardo.
“It was a frustrating race,” said Ricciardo. “We never really felt like we got lucky with the strategy.
“Every time we made a change with the tyres there was a safety car or a red flag. We lost positions and obviously we could not predict what was going to happen and we felt a little bit on the back foot.
“But the real difficulty today was my visibility, which was a struggle as my visor kept fogging up. I kept opening my visor and trying to wipe it but it’s never happened before, and it held me back.”
The conditions made it very hard for all the drivers, Romain Grosjean crashed out on the installation lap, and a total of five other drivers failed to see the chequered flag, but Ricciardo feels the car was a lot better than eighth but is glad he could finish.
“It’s a shame as the car was a lot better than eighth,” added Ricciardo. “When we had a clear track our speed was good. It was tricky out there, for example with Kimi [Raikkonen], I didn’t see him crash in front of me.
“It wasn’t until I got back to the pits and saw a replay I knew he’d crashed. From that point of view they obviously make some good calls with red flags. I’m glad we got to race and glad we could finish it, and that despite some crashes everyone was safe.”
