‘Need smaller, lighter drivers’: Daniel Ricciardo ‘weight joke’ slammed by F1 fans

Daniel Ricciardo’s fans are fuming after the Aussie driver’s weight was casually discussed in a piece of clumsy F1 commentary.

Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 boss has brushed off an insensitive question from commentator David Croft about the Australian’s weight that had fans criticising the race caller.

The F1 season isn’t even at its halfway point but with Max Verstappen set to claim his fourth straight world championship, interest has turned to the driver market and the new 2026 regulations, which were officially announced this week.

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Ricciardo is one of several drivers under pressure to keep his seat, especially after Sergio Perez signed a two-year contract extension with Red Bull that effectively shuts the door on the Aussie’s hope of a fairytale end to his career.

The 35-year-old is taking it one race at a time with VISA Cash App RB, but it’s looking increasingly possible this could be the end of his F1 career.

With Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson waiting in the wings, it would be surprising if Red Bull’s feeder team keep a veteran in a team that’s intended to develop young drivers.

This week the FIA revealed the new era of regulations beginning in the 2026 season would see F1 cars 30kg lighter, 10cm narrower and 20cm shorter.

Daniel Ricciardo in the paddock in Canada. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

The reduction in the weight of cars is significant, but Lewis Hamilton said “it’s still heavy”.

The other main changes are a move towards a 50-50 engine split between electrical and internal combustion engine power, sustainable fuels and the removal of the drag reduction system (DRS).

While the devil will be in the detail, the 2026 rules are set to be ratified by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council on June 28 following discussion with F1 teams.

Discussion of the driver market and news of the 2026 regulations led to an awkward moment during Friday’s practice at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Speaking to VISA Cash App RB team principal Laurent Mekies, with Lawson sitting next to him on the pit wall, Croft asked: “If the cars are going to get heavier, you’re going to need some smaller, lighter drivers like Yuki Tsunoda and the guy sat next to you as well.”

The cars will actually get lighter, but Croft was referring to discussions that drivers will need to lose weight to help make up the required 30kg.

We didn’t need to have the weight discussion. Photo: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images/AFP.

Lauren Mekies handled the question well. Photo: X.

Mekies was having none of it, deftly shutting down the question with a technical explanation of how F1 cars can handle driver of varying weights perfectly fine.

“No actually in F1 we have this beautiful thing which is driver weight ballast,” he said.

“Meaning that light drivers or heavy drivers are effectively driving with no penalty because you have to have a minium driver weight ballast in the car.

“If you have light drivers, you put a bit more ballast in the seat. If you have heavy drivers, a bit less. We are OK.”

It was a clumsy attempt at a joke or getting Mekies to divulge his plans for 2025’s driver line-up, and Ricciardo’s many fans expressed their disapproval at the question on social media.

One fan wrote on X: “Not Crofty trying to make a joke about Lawson getting the seat over Ricciardo because he’s skinnier and Mekies absolutely shutting him the f*** down.

“Never forget that the very first thing Christian Horner noticed when Daniel Ricciardo walked into Red Bull HQ last year was how skinny he had become. Yet Crofty is throwing around weight jokes at his expense.”

A second commented: “The more I process it the more annoyed I’m getting that Sky tried to bait Mekies into revealing anything about their 25 lineup by talking about driver weight. “Especially after Daniel was open about his struggle with it at the end of the 2022 season. What is wrong w YOU?!!?

“What an absolutely insane thing to say about ANY person in general, but especially someone who had his weight talked about by other people totally unwillingly all throughout the first half last year.”

Another said: “Sky sports really suggested today vcarb needs lighter drivers in regard to daniel?”

Daniel Ricciardo with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Photo: Mark Thompson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP.

It comes after 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve took a flamethrower to Ricciardo’s career arguing the only reason he is still in the sport is his “image”.

“Why’s he still in F1? Why?” Villeneuve told Sky Sports on Friday.

“We are hearing the same thing now for the last four or five years. ‘We have to make the car better for him’. Sorry, it’s been five years of that. No, you are in F1.

“Maybe you make that effort for Lewis Hamilton whose won multiple championships. You don’t make that effort for a driver who can’t cut it.

“If you can’t cut it, go home, there’s someone else to take your place. That’s how it’s always been in racing, it’s the pinnacle of the sport.

“There’s no reason to keep going and to keep finding excuses, and you all talk about that first season or first two seasons, he was beating a Vettel that was burnt out, that was trying to invent things with the car to go win and just making a mess of his weekends.

“Then he was beating for half a season Verstappen when Verstappen was 18 years old, just starting, that was it, he stopped beating anyone after that.

“I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results.”

F1 cars will change significantly in 2026. Photo: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images/AFP.

Ricciardo shut down the critics in Canada however, qualifying fifth for the race to be held in the wee hours of the morning Australian time.

The F1 grid did not change in last year’s off-season, but there is expected to be significant driver turnover in this year’s ‘silly season’.

Highly touted youngsters and academy prospects including Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson, Ferrari’s Ollie Bearman and Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli could all be on the grid soon.

Ricciardo, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas, Guanyu Zhou, Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly are under pressure to keep their seats.

Australian Jack Doohan, 22, drove Esteban Ocon’s car in the first practice session in Canada and is the frontrunner to replace the Frenchman, who is parting ways with Alpine at season’s end.