Daniel Ricciardo spent half his race in fuel-saving mode

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he had to spend half the race distance of the Qatar Grand Prix in fuel saving mode. The Australian driver emphasized that his performance in the race was at the mercy of a systemic error, which led his engineer to believe he needed to save fuel.

Explaining why he had to save, Daniel Ricciardo told the Motorsport Network:

“It's clearly a system error today and it's a shame because when I could push, I felt the reference time I got at the time I was able to get...But we were, I guess, at the mercy of an error today with the reading.”

After starting 14th, the McLaren driver dropped to 16th at the start of the race and was only able to recover to 12th place, outside the points. Daniel Ricciardo explained after the race how an incorrect reading in the system prompted his engineer to instruct him to save fuel from the start of the race, until it compromised his performance by losing him chunks of time on every lap.

Describing the sequence of events and his situation in the race, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“After the start, we had fuel saving from super early in the race. And I started doing what I thought was already [doing] a lot, and it was not enough. [I was saving] To a point where I think, at times, we were losing probably two seconds a lap fuel saving. And with that, brakes get cold, tires get cold, and you lose grip as well, so it's just kind of a downward spiral. So, we were fuel saving for, I would say, a good half of the race and that just took us way, way out.”

The Australian explained that it was even harder to start pushing in the second half of the race, when his tires were not in the optimum window and the gap between him and the rest of the field had increased.

---

Daniel Ricciardo has failed to score a point in the last three races

Although he ranks eighth in the drivers’ standings, Daniel Ricciardo has failed to score a single point in the last three races. The Australian finished 12th at the US and Qatar Grands Prix, and retired from the Mexican Grand Prix due to a technical issue.

While the McLaren driver has had a tough time settling into his maiden season with the Woking-based team since coming over from Renault F1, he has contributed 105 out of the 253 points earned by his team so far. By comparison, McLaren junior driver Lando Norris ranks fifth in the championship with a total of 153 points, thanks to consistent performances throughout the year.

McLaren have slid down to fourth place in the constructors' championship ever since the Mexican Grand Prix, and have been able to score just six points in the last three races. Their rivals Ferrari have a 39.5 point lead on them with two races left on the calendar.