As dusk settled over Albert Park yesterday, Australians were celebrating. For the first time in 10 straight races, Sebastian Vettel hadn’t won.
More importantly, after almost 30 years of watching the Formula One Grand Prix go round and round and round Down Under, Daniel Ricciardo had become the first Aussie to make the podium.
“I’m tripping balls right now,” he told the crowd in that understated way Aussies have of marking big achievements. Then he punched the air, held aloft a second place trophy which looked suspiciously like a hubcap, sprayed champagne over the crowd and drank from the bottle. All pretty standard stuff.
But at 8.17pm, it all went to custard. A bloke called Jo Bauer issued a memo that catapulted him past the usual array of politicians and mining magnates into the hotly contested position of Most Reviled Person in Australia.
In a nutshell, he said our Dan was under investigation for breaking the new fuel rules.
All hell broke loose. Premature media reports that Daniel had been disqualified ricocheted around Twitter. Others suggested Red Bull wasn’t the only offender. Hours went by. It wasn’t until a few minutes before midnight that a race spokesman confirmed, in a classic use of bland words to impart bad news, that Daniel had been ‘excluded from results’.
How did this happen, you ask? Believe it or not but we’re in this mess because Formula One decided to go environmentally friendly this season. Don’t laugh, that’s not a joke. Well, at least not in their eyes.
There were a stack of rule changes which I won’t go into because I don’t understand them. Basically,there are as many rules in Formula One as there are provisions in the Tax Act.
But in the one that matters most in this scenario, each driver was limited to 100 kilograms of fuel per race, 50 kilos less than last year. It equates to about 130 litres, apparently.
Enough juice, in other words, to run my car for three months. In Formula One it lasts a couple of hours. At least they’re trying.
Coming into Melbourne, there were concerns as to whether any car would have enough gas to finish the race. The prospect of a Steven Bradbury finish was not out of the question.
Red Bull had the worst of the pre-season testing, unable to complete more than 20 laps in 12 days. Sebastian Vettel didn’t do a whole let better in racing, retiring his car to the garage after five laps to the disappointment of absolutely no one.
But Daniel kept going. And around lap 20, he got word from his pit crew that he didn’t have to worry about saving fuel any more. He was free to floor it. And he did. In the post-race media conference, in words that no doubt haunt him this morning, he said: “I didn’t have to worry about fuel consumption.
For many, this latest mess simply confirms the view that Australian drivers should steer clear of Red Bull. It’s unlikely, for instance, that you’ll find the energy drink in Mark Webber’s fridge or that a vodka Red Bull is his tipple of choice on a night out.
So, we’re still waiting for an Aussie to make the podium at their home Grand Prix. In the meantime, Red Bull is appealing the disqualification.
There’s a simple line of argument they should use if they’d like the benefit of my legal expertise: Daniel didn’t run out of petrol. He didn’t have to hitch a lift back to the pits. Therefore he can’t be in breach of the fuel flow rules.
You’re welcome, Red Bull. This one’s on the house.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Definitely. It's not in any way his fault. The team who are monitoring these things tell him he's fine with fuel and can go flat out, so he does.
Francis Curro
Roar Pro
Unlikely it will get retracted. Other teams are saying that they had sensor problems and they checked with the FIA but Red Bull did not. Yes Dan did not run out of fuel, but that is not why he got disqualified, he used more fuel per hour then allowed and breached it by about 1.5%. there have been many technical changes since last season, new gearbox, ERS, new front wing and new/ less engines.
Pakistan
Guest
car racing is lame
Pakistan
Guest
car racing is lame
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
"There were a stack of rule changes which I won’t go into because I don’t understand them." And when backing up that statement with this, "There’s a simple line of argument they should use if they’d like the benefit of my legal expertise: Daniel didn’t run out of petrol. He didn’t have to hitch a lift back to the pits. Therefore he can’t be in breach of the fuel flow rules.", I believe your first statement, because it's clear you don't understand them. Fuel flow and fuel consumption are two different things. Without going into detailed terms about the sensor, and Hz and seconds and milliseconds, using your legal expertise will lead to absolutely nothing. If, as stated elsewhere in the comments, the car goes over the 100kg/hr fuel flow (as per the FIA sensors), doesn't necessarily mean it has to run out of fuel by the end of the race. Ricciardo (if we are to believe the FIA for the time being) could have been running at 105kg/hr for 10 minutes of the race, or something like that, but running at 50kg/hr for the rest of the race (approx. 1 hour and 22 minutes), he would still have appoximately 15kg of fuel left at the end of the race. However, since he went over the fuel flow limit, that's where the disqualification has come from. The appeal will go down to whether or not Red Bull Racing can prove that their sensor on Ricciardo's car was unreliable and faulty, and that their data shows that they ensured they complied to the regulations.
The Table
Guest
I like to see records broken... Vettel is the man. Shame about this fuel BS. Bad enough the cars no longer sound awesome. The glory days of F1 are well and truly dust.
Distant Knight
Guest
Yep, it was swapped out twice on Friday and Saturday, and then the FIA requested they put the original sensor back in under parc ferme after qualifying. I like the new 100kg limit, I understand why they want to limit maximum flow (would be open slather during qualifying otherwise) but they really need to get the accuracy of these parts sorted out to ensure that all the teams / drivers are playing by the same rules. Will be interesting to know how often and by what amount they went over the limit... I wonder if Vettel retiring early had any influence on on Red Bulls decision making? If they had 2 cars in the points, I'd imagine they would have been more inclined to heed the FIA warnings about RICs fuel usage
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
My understanding DK is that Red Bull didn't install the FIA approved sensor (saying it wasn't 100% accurate) and chose to use their own instead, which, apparently, isn't any better. Re the 100kg/hour fuel consumption its fair to say Ricciardo probably benefited from not abiding by the rules and therefore had an 'unfair' advantage that others didn't have. Red Bull's fault imo.
al
Guest
+1 Good to see that there are some intelligent people around here, Distant Knight.
al
Guest
you're an absolute joke.
kazblah
Roar Guru
All in all a pleasant initiation for a first-time contributor. Thanks everyone for your eyeballs and your views.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
No doubt we're all disappointed that this happened to Dan, however I'm not surprised that a team tried to push their fuel limit in the first race to see whether the FIA would crack down hard. Obviously the FIA have cracked it hard and have sent a clear warning to the teams that they can't fly under the radar with the new fuel regulations. Again, it's tarnished what was a great race for Dan and of course Red Bull who have had a nightmare pre-season, but they will walk away stronger as a result.
Australian Rules
Guest
Absolutely gutted for Dan. What a champ...I'm sure he'll be back up there!
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
No Mark I just fu....ked up!
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Rick, what actually did go wrong with your run up? Did you left sand shoe blow out as many people suspect?......
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Hi Karen - Good on you for writing F1! we need more of it. Dan's car was disqualified because his team played silly buggers with the FIA. They told Red Bull to put a specific sensor on their fuel flow, and Red Bull ignored them and put a different one on. They then told Red Bull throughout the race that they were exceeding the allowed fuel flow level, and Red Bull again ignored them. So pretty cut and dried sadly, as any sportsfan knows, argue with the ref and very rarely ever change their mind. Devestating for Dan but completely reasonable response to Red Bull being smart alecs over the regulations.
Clark
Guest
Rules are rules unfortunately
Distant Knight
Guest
You're correct in pointing out that he didn't run out of fuel. As for not breaching the rules around fuel flow, that argument doesn't hold any weight though. He only had to go over the 100kg/hour fuel flow rate for a second or two to have broken the rule unfortunately. And he apparently passed that on a number of occasions throughout the race, with the team even being warned by race stewards during the race that they had done so. Considering that the fuel flow rate sensor is an FIA provided part, and that a number of teams had issues with the reliability of the readings throughout the weekend, including Mercedes, I'd say this would be the better line of defense for any appeal from Red Bull. Nice whinge though, points for effort...
Nick
Roar Guru
Good article I'm pretty sure that it would have been Vettel who tipped off the stewards about the fuel situation (with a behind the scenes push by Christian Horner). Can't have the Aussies beating Vettel now :p
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
About the only thing I liked about this post was the ill witted sarcasm through out. Apart from that - would you like some cheese with your whine? I especially like the part about Webber not liking Red Bull? You are starting to sound like him to be honest and lets not forget who his driving partner was - a now 4 x World Champion. Perhaps Webber was not good enough, but I'm sure he will blame the car and his second rate crew over and over again. As for the fuel fiasco - lets wait until they have reviewed Redbull's appeal before we start jumping down their throats too much. After all I can't remember the last time they actually lost a race, let alone the constructors championship. Not bad for a team that wasn't in formula one 5-10 years ago.