'We found damage': Brutal truth about Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren debut
McLaren has surprised fans after revealing new recruit Daniel Riccardo raced with a damaged car in the season-opener in Bahrain.
The Aussie, starting at sixth on the grid, was locked in a tight battle with McLarren teammate Lando Norris in the frist lap before he was overtaken.
'SUDDENLY FEEL BETTER': F1 rookie roasted over horror debut
NOT GOING ANYWHERE: Lewis Hamilton's big retirement statement
He was then wedged between Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as Ricciardo dropped to seventh.
Ricciardo came out after the race and said he couldn't push the car for any more pace during his battle to advance.
And after the admission, McLaren has now admitted there was damage to Ricciardo's car following his collision with a rival.
"Post-race we found damage to Daniel's floor from the impact of Pierre (Gasly) running into the back of his car at the beginning of the race," team principal Andreas Seidl said.
"The level of damage cost a considerable amount of downforce. Despite the performance loss Daniel used his experience to cope with the issues and score important points for the team."
Ricciardo reveals trouble with car
Speaking to the F1 website after the race, Ricciardo said he was happy overall with how the weekend went, but disappointed with the race itself.
“I would say if I [take] the weekend as a whole, I’m pretty happy,” Ricciardo said.
“But if I just focus on the race itself, I struggled quite a bit in the race actually.
"I couldn’t really extract the pace form the car and when I did, I could do it for one or two laps and then it would quickly drop off again with the tyres and the balance, so I just didn’t feel like I had a good race performance, or race package.
“Obviously it’s still new to me, so I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of homework for me to do personally to obviously keep getting better."
World champ Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain GP ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.
