Daniel Ricciardo would like to take back his comment that the people running Formula 1’s social media output are “fucking idiots” but stands by his wider criticism of the content.
Ricciardo made the remark in an interview with British magazine Square Mile and it was then widely re-used elsewhere.
He had previously criticised F1’s extensive use of replays following Romain Grosjean’s near-fatal crash in the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, and his latest comment was in relation to an F1 video of the top 10 dramatic moments of the year.
Ricciardo said eight of the 10 clips were crashes although the video in question actually featured six.
“I was just like, you guys are fucking idiots,” he said.
“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.”
The McLaren driver says the tone of his comment was meant to be more tongue-in-cheek and that his immediate response was to be defensive as “you’re like, ‘oh, but it was in this tone and there was a bit of a giggle afterwards’”.
But he admitted that it does not come across that way and said he was in the wrong, even though his opinion about F1’s output is unchanged.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Imola round, Ricciardo said “I’ve certainly got to be better with my choice of words”.
“I certainly, if I could, take that quote back,” he said.
“I would. It was too aggressive, I should know better as well being in the sport 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.”
He explained that the crash video underlined the concerns he had raised after the Grosjean accident, when the ex-Haas driver speared into the barriers on the opening lap, his car split in two and caught fire – yet Grosjean managed to escape with his life.
Ricciardo believes F1 is glorifying the wrong areas by included shunts in a celebration of dramatic moments, and that the championship should showcase more positive elements.
F1 did publish other videos last year including a separate compilation of overtakes and battles.
“Taking that direct comment away from it, what I’m trying to get at is I feel like last year as an example was such an amazing year for F1, there was so many different podium getters, there was a lot of exciting races, I certainly wouldn’t put it under a boring season,” he 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 and some spectacular overtakes.
“I felt like there was better stories to be told as opposed to just crashes.
“And this is obviously my opinion but I feel our sport is better than that, I feel like we’re better than just showing crashes and I think whether it’s other categories or other types of sport or disciplines to kind of show that level of highlights – again, my opinion, but I feel we’re above that.
“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 and I just feel it’s probably the way the sport’s perceived and we’re perceived as drivers.
“We absolutely make mistakes but I would probably highlight the highs more if I had creative control.
“I don’t know if every other driver feels like that but obviously it’s how I feel.
“I’ve apologised, but I would obviously take back at least the language from those comments.
“That was overall my opinion of what I would do if I had a chance to direct it a little bit.”
Ricciardo said it was important to stress he didn’t want to “attack too much” especially as it risks diluting the underlying point.
“It’s just important that what I feel gets across, and it’s not just me abusing them,” he said.
“I want them to remove that part, if you know what I mean, but at least understand what I was trying to say.
“So, I keep my opinion of what I think can be improved, but I’ll just say it kinder.”
