Outrage as Daniel Ricciardo dragged into Formula 1 offensive slur storm
Formula 1 officials have taken action following a breach of its International Sporting Code with Daniel Ricciardo dragged into the drama.
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Daniel Ricciardo has been dragged into teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s offensive slur storm.
The Japanese racer was on Sunday morning fined by Formula 1’s governing body after using an ugly term during qualifying for Sunday night’s Austrian Grand Prix.
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It was a dramatic day at the Red Bull Ring track as Aussie Oscar Piastri was also involved in an incident that was looked at by officials long after Max Verstappen had smashed all his competitors away to take pole position.
Three time world champion Verstappen clocked a best lap in 1 minute 4.314 seconds to outpace nearest rival Lando Norris of McLaren by 0.404sec for his fourth Austrian pole.
It was a solid day for Ricciardo’s Visa Cash App RB team with the veteran driver missing out on a spot in Q3 by less than 0.1 seconds.
In a promising sign for the Perth product, who finished P11, he also finished ahead of Tsunoda, who was 14th.
Tsunoda’s day was blighted by the use of a disability slur which he said in English on his team radio while stuck behind competing cars in pit lane.
Tsunoda was heard saying: “These guys are f***ing r******d.”
You can hear the radio message in the video player above.
He was summoned to a stewards hearing after the final qualifying session and was found guilty of breaching the FIA International Sporting Code.
Tsunoda was handed a $AUD64,000 fine for the radio outburst, although $32,000 has been suspended because he made an immediate public apology.
The radio outburst also occurred when Tsunoda was overtaken in the pitlane by Guanyu Zhou, but Tsunoda defended himself and said he didn’t know the severity of the slur given English isn’t his first language.
His race engineer responded to his comment by saying: “Yuki, no worries. Don’t worry. There’s plenty of time”.
Tsunoda was apologetic after the session concluded and stewards noted how horrified he was when learning how offensive the English term is.
The ugly incident has stirred up the hornets nest between Ricciardo fans and Tsunoda fans on social media.
The Australian was dragged into the drama by fans accusing him of saying worse things than what Tsunoda uttered on Sunday morning.
Tsunoda fans and Ricciardo fans have been at each other all year as the RB teammates jostled for a chance to replace Sergio Perez in the senior Red Bull team — before the Mexican’s contract was extended through to the end of the 2026 season last month.
Tsunoda also had his contract with the junior Red Bull team extended.
Ricciardo is yet to find a seat on the 2025 grid.
However, his chances have improved in recent weeks, toppling his teammate in recent grands prix and in qualifying sessions. For most of the year, however, Tsunoda has easily out-performed his teammate.
That rivalry has led to repeated clashes between fans and it happened again when Tsunoda fans attacked Ricciardo.
One fan posted on Twitter: “Ricciardo fans are so shameless that they are trying to cancel a non-native English speaker because he said “r******d”.
Stewards were much more forgiving.
In their verdict, race officials wrote: “During Q1 when car 22 was queuing in the fast lane and another car blended into the fast lane ahead of him, the driver was heard to make a statement over team radio using offensive language.
“During the hearing the driver was very apologetic and explained that because English is not his first language he was unaware until after the session what the meaning of the words used is in the English language.
“He said that he was horrified when he learned this. He contended that his understanding of the words was different, but acknowledged that this should not be considered as an excuse for what he did.
“The stewards appreciate the honesty of the driver, but reinforce the fact the words used are offensive and wholly inappropriate.
“To have used such words over a platform that is available to the public amounted to misconduct as defined in Article 20 of the International Sporting Code.”
He made a full apology while sharing messages on Instagram and Twitter.
“I wanted to say big apologies [for] what I said in the radio today,” he wrote.
“Obviously I didn’t use it intentionally and was completely misunderstanding from myself that exact meaning of it.
“I now have a better understanding for what the word means and am very apologetic for what I said. This type of language has no place and is not tolerated and for that I am sorry.”
Piastri, meanwhile, will start the race from the fourth row after his best lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
McLaren protested the penalty, but the protest was dismissed.
Piastri was clearly filthy about the ruling and described it as “embarrassing”.
His time would have been quick enough to secure third spot on the grid.
Austrian GP Qualifying: Top 10
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Lando Norris, McLaren
3) George Russell, Mercedes
4) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
6) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
7) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
8) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
9) Nico Hulkenberg, Hass
10) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
— with AFP
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