MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo Cinderella story blows up

Ricciardo did everything right all weekend, following up his front-row qualifying in the wet with an amazingly calm drive of a Red Bull-Renault car that before the event had been expected to be lucky to finish.

Even if it were to make it to the chequered flag it was thought lucky it would be in the top 10.    

It didn’t matter to a madly patriotic crowd on Sunday that Ricciardo was 24.5 seconds behind the Mercedes of victor Nico Rosberg, son of the winner of Australia’s first world champion F1 race in Adelaide 29 years ago.

But what mattered to the technical officials was that Ricciardo’s car had, according to their sensor, been pumping fuel into its turbocharged V6 engine faster than it should have been.

And “consistently” so, those officials said.

At 11.54pm Melbourne time Sunday Ricciardo was excluded from the race results, promoting Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen, already on the podium on debut, to second and his veteran teammate Jenson Button to third – so two podiums for McLaren after none last year.

What is amazing is that if Ricciardo’s fuel was being pumped too fast so “consistently” that he didn’t run out of fuel. All cars now are limited to 100kg – about 130 litres – and no refueling is allowed.

There is a generic FIA sensor on all of them to check that fuel is not pumped at more than 100kg/hour.

FIA technical chief Jo Bauer warned Red Bull early in the race that he was noticing Ricciardo’s car exceeding the fuel speed limit and advised it to change its settings.

Red Bull has appealed the disqualification, which not only has cost Ricciardo second place in the drivers’ championship but left the world champion team of the past four years without a constructors’ championship point.

Its world champion driver Sebastian Vettel dropped out of the race on lap five – two laps after Mercedes’ pole position starter Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull is vigorously disputing the accuracy of the fuel sensor, but its chances of success on appeal probably are slim. Team principal Christian Horner is insistent the team complied with the regulations, saying the fuel sensors had been inaccurate. 

“I’m extremely disappointed, quite surprised,” Horner said. “Hopefully through the appeal process, it will be clear the car has conformed at all times with the regulations and we have complied with technical regulations. 

“Since their introduction, there have been discrepancies and the sensors have been unreliable. 

"We could see a significant discrepancy with what the sensor was reading and what our fuel flow was stated as – that's where there's a difference of opinion. 

“These fuel-flow sensors have proved problematic.”

Horner said Red Bull had an issue with the sensor during Friday practice and was given a replacement that “failed during qualifying”. 

“We were asked to put the one we used on Friday back on the car and apply an offset,” he said. 

“We could see a significant discrepancy with what the sensor was reading and what our fuel flow was stated as. We didn’t feel it was correct.” 

However, they were surprisingly reliable.

Once the Williams of Felipe Massa and Caterham of Kamui Kobayashi were out at the first corner and Vettel and Hamilton within four more laps the race ran smoothly – perhaps too smoothly and processionally.

Fourteen of the 22 cars finished.

Had it not been for a safety car at one-third distance Rosberg may have finished about 36 seconds ahead of Ricciardo – an advantage of about three quarters of a second a lap, demonstrating the enormity of the early superiority of the factory Merc.

The Red Bull-Renault’s performance was a surprise. Ricciardo had seriously anticipated a finish between seventh and 10th before the weekend, although hopes were raised by the time qualifying was over.

Ferrari, as it has been for several seasons now, was reliable but lacking outright pace – something that won’t have pleased Fernando Alonso, fourth after Ricciardo’s exclusion, or Kimi Raikkonen, seventh after a difficult weekend in his return to the Italian team.

There were some brilliant performances by young drivers.

Magnussen became the best performed debutant in F1 since Jacques Villeneuve in Melbourne in 1996.

Russian Daniil Kyvyat qualified in the top 10 and his ninth place for Toro Rosso made him, at 19, the youngest driver to have scored points in a GP.

And Finn Valtteri Bottas, in his second season with Williams, finished fifth from 15th on the grid despite slapping a wall early in the race and having to battle back to the pits on three wheels.

Ricciardo, for all his brilliance, is left with tons of kudos but no points – unless Red Bull’s appeal succeeds. The man he replaced at Red Bull, Mark Webber, was a hit on Channel 10’s telecast on Sunday but all of a sudden his star status has been assumed by Ricciardo.

Australia has a new F1 hero. Whatever the outcome of the Melbourne controversy, Ricciardo has proved he belongs in the big league.

Formula One World Championship driver standings after first of 19 rounds - 1. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 25 points; 2. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, McLaren-Mercedes) 18; 3. Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Merc edes) 15; 4. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 12; 5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 10; 6. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 8; 7. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 6; 8. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Renault) 4; 9. Danill Kvyat (Russia, Toro Rosso-Renault) 2: 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India) 1.

F1 constructor standings - 1. McLaren-Mercedes 33; 2. Mercedes 25; 3. Ferrari 18; 4. Williams-Mercedes 10; 5.  Force India-Mercedes 9; 6. Toro Rosso-Renault 6.

There were three wins for Holden – by the privateer Tekno Autosports team – and one by startling newcomer Volvo.

But all four wins were by New Zealand drivers – Shane Van Gisbergen in the Holden and 20-year-old Scott McLaughlin in the Volvo.

Yet again there was a lot of talk about the GP races becoming part of the V8 Supercar Championship next year, but a new complication is pay TV service Fox becoming the championship’s host broadcaster next season (with only selected races live on Ten). 

The Fox factor could be a stumbling block for GP organisers with F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, although he has to survive a criminal trial in Germany in the 12 months between now and the next Oz GP.

Register to comment on this article.