Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that his McLaren team has limited the amount of water in his car’s drinking bottle in a desperate effort to save weight.
Since the introduction of the new rules for 2022, most teams are expected to be driving more than the minimum weight.
As a result of some extreme weight-preservation measures, several teams remove paint from cars to lose weight. Earlier this season Aston Martin revealed that it had saved 350 grams using less paint, a significant amount in a game where time is measured in thousandths of a second.
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Many drivers have spent the weekend at the end of the Miami Grand Prix, driving in the hot and humid environment of Florida.
Ricciardo now admits he was forced to finish the race with less fluid than usual.
“We don’t have the luxury of having three liters in our drinking system,” he told motorsport.com.
“So we have a little something, and it’s never liquid enough. So naturally, you’ll be dehydrated. And yes, this heat was quite real.
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“They’re obviously tough. I mean, everyone has obviously worked hard, it’s hot, the drivers, the mechanics, everyone is feeling the heat.”
It was a frustrating weekend for Ricciardo McLaren’s team. Lando failed to finish after colliding with Norris Pierre Gasley, when the Australian crossed the line at 11th, only to drop to 13th through a post-race penalty.
This is the fourth time in five races this season that Ricardo has failed to score a World Championship point, and he has admitted he is on track for even better results in Miami.
“Actually when I crossed the line, I honestly thought I was 10th,” he said. “It’s hard to know, obviously [there are] Fighting and cars are going off here and there. But I was calculating in my mind that enough cars were gone, or I was gone, to stay somewhere inside the point. “
Although he is still fighting in 2022, close examination of his results shows that it is not as bad as it looks for a 32-year-old man.
In Bahrain he finished ahead of Norris, and he would have done the same in Melbourne if the team had not instructed him to hold the station in the final.
The Ricciardo race in Saudi Arabia ended with mechanical problems beyond his control, while his final qualifying effort in Miami was hampered by another car problem, compromising his weekend.
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