Daniel Ricciardo validated by Romain Grosjean’s wife after furious outburst

Daniel Ricciardo will confront F1 bosses over a “disgusting” decision made on the weekend, revealing a rival’s wife is in his corner.

Romain Grosjean's wife is backing Daniel Ricciardo.

Daniel Ricciardo revealed he has the support of Romain Grosjean’s wife after attacking broadcasters for showing the F1 star’s horrific crash in Bahrain, vowing to take the matter further with the sport’s bosses.

Grosjean has been discharged from hospital after suffering burns to his hands during Monday’s race when his car slammed into the safety barriers and split in half, erupting into a ball of flames.

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The race was stopped and Ricciardo was furious his rival’s crash was replayed so much on TV, calling it a “cold blooded” decision from TV networks and accusing them of showing no respect for drivers or their families.

“The way the incident of Grosjean was broadcast over and over, the replays over and over, it was completely disrespectful and inconsiderate for his family, for all of our families watching,” Ricciardo told Dutch broadcaster Ziggo.

“I mean, we can see that tomorrow, we don’t need to see it today.

“For me, it was entertainment and they’re playing with all of our emotions and I thought it was pretty disgusting.”

F1 defended the decision to replay the incident, saying the footage only rolled again when officials were certain Grosjean and the marshals who came to his aid were all safe.

Ricciardo wasn’t in the right space to address his concerns immediately after the race, in which he came seventh, but the Aussie confirmed he will take up the offer to discuss his issues with F1 chiefs this week and is “happy to be educated” about what broadcast decisions were made and why.

There was widespread horror as Grosjean’s car burst into flames.

Marshals rushed to put out the fire and help the Frenchman escape.

Ricciardo isn’t backing down from his belief it was wrong to continually replay Grosjean’s crash when the other drivers were waiting for the race to restart, and revealed the Frenchman’s wife backed his criticism.

“I felt like once they showed it once and then we’d obviously seen him jump out and get into the medical car, I felt like that was all we really needed to see,” Ricciardo said, per Motorsport.com.

“I felt like it was inconsiderate to his family, but also it was a distraction because every time we’d go into the garage and try and find out what was happening, the only thing that was on was it seemed like endless replays.

“Everyone was a little bit spaced out or rattled from it all, which is completely understandable.

“I bumped into Romain’s wife Marion and she appreciated my comments and I think that’s all the validation I needed.

“I think as well, it was a 54g impact and from my understanding, don’t get me wrong I’m no doctor but there could be further complications maybe later that evening that we don’t know about internally. So it just felt like it was a bit abused.”

Not everyone agrees with Ricciardo, though. Former Australian F1 world champion Alan Jones said the crash rammed home the realities of how dangerous the sport is, and told the Renault star he shouldn’t be driving if he’s complaining about TV replays.

“Without flossing over it, it’s a dangerous sport. We’ve got poor old Daniel Ricciardo raving on about how insensitive and stupid it was to show the replays,” Jones told Wide World of Sports.

“We all like to see a good shunt as long as nobody gets hurt. But the game they’re in, it’s a possibility. That possibility is getting less and less, for sure. The safety has come on in leaps and bounds.

“But it’s still an unsafe sport, and Daniel’s going on about the replays before the race restarts. If he’s not aware that something like that could happen, he should give it up.”

Grosjean was back in the paddock after being discharged from hospital.

Grosjean’s boss at Haas, Gunther Steiner, also said he could see why the replays may have been necessary once it was established his driver was OK.

“You can have two opinions here, but my opinion is if it ended lucky, and nothing bad happened, why not show it to make sure people understand?” Steiner said.

“Yeah it was bad, but everybody is OK. That was how to deal with it. We wanted to get the news out as soon as possible to the people, Romain is OK guys, just because it’s difficult to contact family, friends, people who know us, people of the team. If we sent one message via TV and something like this, it’s much more powerful.

“I think showing it and showing him jumping out, yeah, it looks a little bit and it is dramatic, but it ended good. So long as it ends good, I’m fine.

“For sure, if something bad happens, it shouldn’t be shown. I’m not an expert in TV ethics, but in my opinion, a good thing was shown.”