F1 | Lauda against Charlie Whiting: “Ricciardo's penalty was excessive”

According to what Niki Lauda declared to the broadcaster ORF, the FIA was too harsh on Daniel Ricciardo for the penalty applied to him in Australia. The Australian, we remember, served a three-place penalty on the starting grid for not respecting the delta time during a red flag regime. It all happened on Friday. According to the Austrian, the FIA ​​must evaluate on a case-by-case basis, trying to be more lenient in cases that do not concern the safety of the pilots themselves. In Ricciardo's case, in fact, the problem was localized along the starting line, which is why the Australian did not endanger anyone's life.

Here are Niki's words: "If this is the beginning of Charlie and the FIA, Formula 1 is going in the wrong direction. I would have given Ricciardo a different penalty, maybe a fine, but I wouldn't have put him three places back on the grid. He would have been in the running for the GP and being Australian the public would have liked it. We need to be more lenient and carefully evaluate each case."

Roberto Valenti