'Shut the f*** up': Did Ricciardo's cheeky sledge kick off media war?

The light-hearted Formula One coverage of Dutch TV network Ziggo Sport has claimed a fresh victim thanks to Daniel Ricciardo.

Interviewed by Jack Plooij after being forced to retire from the Australian Grand Prix on lap 31, Ricciardo was attempting to explain his first-lap incident.

“I didn’t intend to go on the grass in the first place,” he said.

“I had a better start than Perez…”

That’s when the Renault driver was forced to stop, noticing the BBC’s Jennie Gow reporting live – and loud – behind him.

“Um… I can’t concentrate, she’s talking too loud,” Ricciardo said as a team official standing by looked over at Gow.

Plooij weighed in: “Always.”

That’s when Ricciardo, with a smile seemingly acknowledging he’d get a laugh out of the Dutch, made a move over his shoulder.

“Shut the f*** up,” he said.

The studio audience obliged with howls of laughter and applause as Ricciardo continued on.

However, the battle seemingly didn’t end there despite the Ziggo broadcast’s casual presentation.

While the order of events is unclear, a war of words appeared to play out in the background of a Sky Sports interview with Haas driver Romain Grosjean.

None other than Plooij and Gow could be seen in what looked to be a heated discussion.

Microphones were waved before Plooij pleaded his case to a stunned Gow.

Ricciardo pinned the blame on his race-ruining incident on a uniquely ‘random’ piece of the Albert Park street circuit.

He lost his front wing after the lights went out when he put his right wheels on the grass attempting to pass Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.

The wing cracked off his car as he dropped on to a gap of bitumen between two grass patches – a flaw in the circuit that Ricciardo did not expect.

“Gutted, for sure. When it’s over like that as well it’s a weird one. That was unexpected,” he told Channel 10.

“I got a better run than Perez. I saw there was a bit of space on the inside so I went. He moved a little bit so I just moved obviously – it’s a natural reaction.

“But that last movement just put my wheel in the grass and there was a massive bump, which caught me by surprise. Those bumps, that was kind of random.

“It’s not like there’s always a change across the grass (at other tracks). I would say (I was) more unlucky than anything else.”

The grass-bitumen-grass transition is a compromise at the Melbourne street circuit, which largely has the surroundings of a regular racetrack but is public road and parkland for the majority of the year.