MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo’s Groundhog Day in Montreal

Monday motorsport report

The term Groundhog Day describes a situation in which a series of unwelcome or tedious events appear to be recurring in exactly the same way.

Daniel Ricciardo’s problems with this year’s Red Bull-Renault Formula One car are not the same every race, but they’re consistent.

Ricciardo couldn’t get his RB11 to perform anywhere near the way he wanted it during qualifying or the race at the Canadian Grand Prix and finished 13th and a lap down.

A year ago he scored his maiden F1 victory on the same Montreal track – the first of three last year and the only driver other than Mercedes factory pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to stand on the top step of the podium last season.

What a difference a year has made. And this time a groundhog – a rodent common in parts of North America – wandered across the track during the race, fortunately without creating any mayhem.

The seventh round of the world championship was a walkover for Mercedes, with Hamilton and Rosberg starting from the front row of the grid and heading the field all the way, finishing only a couple of seconds apart.

From the pit wall they were instructed to lift off and coast, yet third-placed Valtteri Bottas in a Williams-Mercedes was still more than 40 seconds behind Hamilton at the chequered flag.

Kimi Raikkonen should have been third for Ferrari but a spin after a change of tyres cost him a podium.

Raikkonen’s teammate Sebastian Vettel – who had started from 18th after a troubled qualifying session and a five-place grid penalty for not having slowed sufficiently under a red flag in final practice – charged through the field to finish fifth.

While Bottas is the first driver not in a factory Mercedes or a Ferrari to make the podium this season, his teammate Felipe Massa was another star of the race, coming from 15th on the grid to sixth at the finish.

Crash-prone Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado scored his first points of the year with seventh place for Lotus, German Nico Hulkenberg was eighth for Force India and Ricciardo’s Russian teammate Russian Daniil Kvyat ninth for Red Bull.

Hamilton, in scoring his fourth victory in Montreal and fourth win this season to extend his championship lead over Rosberg to 17 points, lapped every driver after Maldonado at least once.

But, if Ricciardo is frustrated at Red Bull Racing, his unhappiness is nothing compared with that of world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button – neither of whom finished in the Honda-powered McLarens.

Both dropped out with exhaust problems, after Alonso had complained over the radio his car was so uncompetitive that he was being made to look like an amateur.

When the McLaren crew asked him at one-third distance to conserve fuel he told them in no uncertain terms that he would race as hard as he could and worry about saving fuel later.  

Alonso is yet to score a world championship point on his return to McLaren after five frustrating years at Ferrari, while Button has four points from eighth place in Monaco two weeks ago but called his catalogue of woes in Montreal “painful”.

Nightmare at Red Bull Racing just gets worse

Daniel Ricciardo is sure something was seriously amiss with his car in Canada and, even though he will get a new chassis for the Austrian GP in a fortnight, he can’t see much upside in the near future.

“That was one of those races where I was going round and round, banging my head against a wall,” Ricciardo told Autosport.com after today’s Montreal event.

“I made a few jokes yesterday thinking today would be better, and I didn't think in my wildest dreams today would end up how it did.

“It was like two years ago to be honest – it was really strange. I had my worst race here in 2013, when I was 15th [for Red Bull’s junior team, Toro Rosso].

“A year later I win, and now I am back where I was in 2013.

“I know I am not a second slower than Daniil [Kyvat)] and I know I haven't forgotten how to drive.

“The unfortunate thing is it made the afternoon pretty frustrating. Hopefully it's something obvious, but we may have to dig a little deeper.

“There was nothing that made me feel like ‘this is an absolute box’.

“I had more downforce than Daniil. We switched [to running more wing] in quali[fying], something I wanted to do.

“I was sliding around more and using the tyres more in the race, but it just didn’t work.

“I know it’s got nothing to do with my capabilities, but it was disappointing to be lapped by the Williams’.”

On whether his chassis may have been cracked, Ricciardo said: “I know I’m going to get a new one anyway.

“It was the plan to get the second one in for Austria, so maybe that will put a few people’s minds at rest.

“I didn't have any hits with the barriers or anything like that this weekend. There is nothing I can think of which stands out.

“So it’s a case of tucking into the laptops and try to find something."

A day earlier Ricciardo, who has tried to put a brave face on Red Bull’s problems this season, especially with its Renault power units, had said that recent upgrades on the RB11 had not worked.

“We just can’t seem to get a sweet spot, which brings out the frustrations,” he said.

“The last few races we’ve had updates, but to be honest they haven’t really done anything for us.

“I don’t think we really know what we need right now or where to find it.

“We are trying, but we are not getting much in return.

“We probably need to take a step back and look somewhere else or try and see if there is something fundamental we are missing.

“Obviously on the power side we know where that is, but on the chassis side there’s something there which we can’t grab on to which we had last year.”

Formula One World Championship driver standings after seven of 19 rounds – 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 151 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 134; 3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 108; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 72; 5.  Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 57; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 47; 7. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 35; 8. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Red Bull-Renault) 19; 9. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Mercedes) 17;
10. Felipe Nasr (Brazil, Sauber-Ferrari) 16; 11. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 11; 12. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 10; 13. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Renault) 9; 14. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Toro Rosso=Renault) 6; 15. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Lotus-Mercedes) 6; 16. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden, Sauber-Ferrari) 5; 17. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Honda) 4.

F1 constructor standings – 1. Mercedes 285 points; 2. Ferrari 180; 3. Williams-Mercedes 104; 4. Red Bull-Renault 54; 5. Lotus-Mercedes 23; 6. Sauber-Ferrari 21; 7. Force India-Mercedes 21; 8. Toro Rosso-Renault 15; 9. McLaren-Honda 4.

Power loses Indy ground as Dixon takes Texas

Juan Pablo Montoya has gone further ahead of Australia’s Will Power in the IndyCar championship after the latest round, won by New Zealander Scott Dixon.

Brisbane-born Dixon and Brazilian Tony Kanaan made it a one-two finish for Chip Ganassi Racing as Chevrolet-powered cars dominated at the Texas Motor Speedway.

It’s Dixon’s second win of the season and was the 99th Indy racing victory for team owner Ganassi.

Dixon is third in the championship, 43 points behind Montoya (348-305) after nine of 16 races, heading to the 10th round in Toronto, Canada, next weekend.

Montoya finished fourth in Texas, behind Penske teammate Helio Castoneves, while Power, the reigning series champion and fastest qualifier in another Penske-Chevrolet, led seven laps but ended only 13th and, with 313 points, is now 35 points behind the Colombian, winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500.

Unlike the F1 procession in Montreal, there were 14 lead changes among nine drivers on the Texas oval.

Australian Ryan Briscoe, filling in for injured American James Hinchcliffe in a Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda-powered car for the second oval race in a row after finishing 12th in the Indy 500, made up 11 places in the 23-car field to finish eighth.

Briscoe now heads to Le Mans to drive a Chevrolet Corvette in the 24-Hour classic at the French circuit next weekend.

Formula E title is in Piquet’s grasp

Brazil’s Piquet family is poised to have another world champion in the family by the end of this month.

Nelson Piquet Junior, son of triple F1 world champion, is in the box seat to win the first Formula E “world championship” at the final round on a street circuit at London’s Battersea Park on June 27-28.

The younger Piquet, himself an ex-F1 driver, won the Moscow round of the Formula E all-electric open-wheeler series in Moscow ahead of countryman Lucas di Grassi.

Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi crossed the line third but was penalised 29 seconds for an unsafe release by his pit crew, dropping him to ninth and giving German Nick Heidfeld his first podium in Formula E.

Piquet goes into the London final – at which there will be two races – on 128 points, de Grassi has 111 and Buemi 105.