McLaren have revealed that Daniel Ricciardo‘s MCL35M picked up floor damage on the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix following contact with Pierre Gasly.
Gasly lost his front wing in the process and went to the back of the pack, while Ricciardo continued, eventually finishing his maiden race with the team in seventh.
“Post-race we found damage to Daniel’s floor from the impact of Pierre running into the back of his car at the beginning of the race,” Seidl said in a statement on Monday.
“The level of damage cost a considerable amount of downforce. Despite the performance loss Daniel used his experience to cope with the issues and score important points for the team. We now look forward to the next race.”
Given the damage, it was a strong effort by the Australian, although he will not want to see his McLaren teammate Lando Norris up the road in fourth on too many occasions going forward.
“I felt like I got slower as the race went on,” Ricciardo said after the race.
“So I felt like the first stint on the soft I was hanging with Lando and Charles Leclerc more or less but then with the medium they pulled away a bit and then the hard even more, so I felt like I kind of degraded as the race went on.”
He added: “I kind of hope I have damage, maybe it explains some of the some of the pace.”
Formula 1 returns to action in three weeks time at Imola.