Why Ricciardo’s ‘peculiar’ fastest lap call was a reward not a conspiracy

RB has rubbished conspiracies that its decision to let Daniel Ricciardo snatch fastest lap from Lando Norris at Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix was about helping sister team Red Bull.

A late call to pull Daniel Ricciardo in for soft tyres so he could gun for fastest lap caused controversy after Sunday’s race because of the potential implications it could have for the championship.

For with RB gaining nothing from the move, as you need to finish in the top 10 to earn the fastest lap point, the tactic was viewed by many as a spoiler to snatch the bonus from Lando Norris, who is the main title rival of sister team Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Norris’s McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said he did not wish to believe that there was a link between RB’s actions and Red Bull’s title hopes, but did acknowledge that the move was unusual.

“At no point I have elements now to say RB went for the fastest lap to support the Red Bull. I just find it a little… how to say… peculiar,” he said. “I did not see it coming.

“I was a little surprised that the highest priority of RB racing in Singapore was to go and score the fastest lap of the race. I think we just have to work harder to make sure that this [championship] doesn’t come down to a point.”

RB team principal Laurent Mekies has opened up on the thinking behind the fastest lap call – and explained how it actually all revolved around the circumstances of Ricciardo’s race weekend.

With the Australian driver expected to find out before the United States Grand Prix that he is being replaced by Liam Lawson for the rest of the season, Mekies said that RB wanted to offer him some personal reward for his dignity and professionalism to the end.

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, he said: “You have to give credit to the guy. Daniel had a crazy weekend to go through.

“I don’t think I saw him once in any moment of the race weekend losing one ounce of professionalism in or out of the car. Even though the pressure was becoming higher and higher and higher.

“The guy does all the [Singapore] race at the back, fighting every lap, putting some good laps in, and is unable to pass.

“We just thought it was the right thing to do – to give him that chance in the context in which the weekend had been.”

Asked what his reply was to the conspiracy theorists, Mekies said: “It’s as simple as giving the guy a chance in what has been a crazy weekend.

“It’s like: give him a break, give him a chance to post a good lap and finish this weekend on a high.”

Mekies denied there had been any conversation with Red Bull over the fastest lap tactic.

This claim seems to be further backed up sources claiming there were radio conversations on the Red Bull pit wall debating about whether to pit Sergio Perez from 10th place to steal the fastest lap before it was agreed to abort the move because Ricciardo had stopped in the meantime.

Mekies was also clear that the idea had not even come up in its own strategy conversations before the race.
“Of course, not,” he explained.

“You always hope that you will have a well-timed safety car and you will be back in contention, otherwise you don’t go racing. So that’s why we started on the soft, actually.

“This was not something that you plan at the beginning of the race. It’s just after how tough a race it was, and how meaningless it had become for him to fight at the back like that, we just felt it was the right thing.”

Ricciardo himself said he felt that RB giving him the offer of going for fastest lap was about giving him something to aim for – even though he is well aware he may well have helped Verstappen.

“I had an idea, but I also thought they were just letting me have some fun because we were obviously a long way out of the points,” said the Australian.

“So then yeah, at the end, the fastest lap. I’m kind of hoping Max wins by a point now, because I guaranteed myself a very nice Christmas present if so. So sorry Lando! But I think I’d get a good Christmas present!

“I heard something about a $3.5 million bonus for fastest lap or something. Red Bull was throwing some crazy number around!”