Daniel Ricciardo backtracks after lashing out at F1 ‘f***ing idiots’

Daniel Ricciardo has backtracked from his aggressive takedown of F1 officials but maintains they should still listen to his most important point.

Daniel Ricciardo admitted he may have gone overboard in his criticism of F1’s decision to highlight major crashes last season but is adamant it’s wrong to glorify the sport’s most frightening moments.

The Aussie star was scathing of the call to continually replay Romain Grosjean’s horrifying fireball crash in Bahrain last year, and said on the weekend F1 figures should be ashamed for putting the spotlight on crashes where drivers are in real danger of suffering serious injuries.

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“I think last year, F1 put on their social channels, like, ‘Top 10 moments of the year’ or something, and eight of the 10 were crashes,” Ricciardo told UK lifestyle magazine Square Mile.

“I was just like, you guys are f***ing idiots. Maybe 12-year-old kids want to see that kind of content, and that’s cool because they don’t know any better, but we’re not kids. Just do better, guys. Do better than that.”

Ricciardo walked back from the language he used in that interview, telling reporters ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix he regretted how aggressive he came across.

“I’ve certainly got to be better with my choice of words,” Ricciardo said. “I certainly, if I could, take that quote back. It was too aggressive.

“I should know better as well being in the sport probably as long as I have. And even if I feel at the time, it might be out of context, I know that it’s going to get pushed, and so I should do better with that.

“I’m not denying I said it but the tone doesn’t always get shown as maybe it was in that moment.

“And it could just be me as well. Sometimes I might just get too comfortable with whoever is conducting the interview and I might just take it a little lightly.”

Ricciardo wants to highlight the best of F1.

While he acknowledged his wrongdoing in one department, Ricciardo stuck by the sentiment and maintained F1 should not be promoting the sport with violent crashes when there is so much else to work with.

“I felt last year was such an amazing year for F1. There were so many different podium getters, there was a lot of exciting races, I certainly wouldn’t put it under a boring season,” Ricciardo said.

“And I just felt like there was probably more room to expose the highs of the sport and the great achievements of a lot of individual drivers and individual performances. Whether some spectacular overtakes … I felt like there was better stories to be told, as opposed to just crashes.

“This is obviously my opinion, but I feel our sport is better than that. I feel like we’re better than just showing crashes.

“I feel like we are the most talented drivers in the world and we’re driving these amazing cars. So normally, a crash is showing less of our talents. We absolutely make mistakes but I would probably highlight the highs more if I had creative control.

“I’ve apologised, I would obviously take back, let’s say, at least the language from those comments, but that was overall my opinion of what I would do if I had a chance to direct it a little bit.”