Daniel Ricciardo captured in embarrassing moment amid Aussie F1 driver's struggles

Daniel Ricciardo has endured another tough evening for RB after spinning out at the Jeddah Grand Prix after a delayed pit stop ruined his chances. Ricciardo got off to a mixed start to the season alongside teammate Yuki Tsunoda with the pair taking digs at each other after finishing outside the points on the opening weekend of the season in Bahrain.

And things got worse at the Jeddah GP with Tsunoda finishing in 14th, while the Aussie finished 16th after a poor tyre change cost him 40 seconds. Ricciardo started 14th, but couldn't hold onto the position after a number of setbacks.

After 10 laps, Ricciardo made a pit stop and disaster struck when it took close to 40 seconds to change his tyres. This put him at the back of the pack and all but ended any chance of competing for points. He then spun out on lap 49 when pushing up the field, before finishing the race outside of the points.

The Aussie was left frustrated once again and claimed the team was off the pace to start the season. “I think the only thing that’s probably keeping me a little bit optimistic now is we did find a few things, so that’s positive,” he said after the race.

“I’ve driven a long time; I know when things don’t feel quite right. On one hand it’s nice to find a few things, but on another it meant that it was a pretty painful weekend. That’s obviously frustrating.”

Ricciardo was keen for a change of fortune heading into his home Grand Prix at Melbourne. “Melbourne will be better,” he said. “I know we’ll fix it and have an equal playing field and a strong showing.

“It feels like it’s been a pretty slow start to the year, but it’s been two races. I know how quickly this thing can turn around. There’s not too much head scratching right now. It’s just a frustrating weekend, but it’s not that we don’t have answers. I think it’s quite clear. We’ve just got to polish her up and make sure it’s good to go for Melbourne.”

Teammate Tsunoda echoed Ricciardo's concern and said the team have faced these issues before and need to find a solution going forward. “I struggled with grip,” a frustrated Tsunoda said.

“It was pretty difficult to handle it. On the positive side we had pace — good qualifying — but we have to still work on this kind of race. Historically we tend to always struggle with the race pace. We have to figure out why.”

Oscar Piastri enjoys career-best race at Jeddah

While Ricciardo struggled, Oscar Piastri enjoyed arguably his best race of his career having finished fourth in a McLaren still slightly off the pace. Piastri finished four positions in front of teammate Lando Norris and will be extremely confident heading into the Melbourne Grand Prix.

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And Jeddah also marked Max Verstappen's 19th win in 20 races having finished well clear of the field after another superb race. "Overall, a fantastic weekend for the whole team and myself. I felt really good with the car, and it was the same in the race," Verstappen said.

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