Daniel Ricciardo may have a three-place grid drop for his McLaren farewell in Abu Dhabi subsequent weekend after he collided with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap in Brazil on Sunday.
Stewards deemed the 33-year-old Australian was “wholly in charge” for the incident at Interlagos and in addition dished out two penalty factors to take his tally to eight for the 12-month interval.
“Ricciardo defined that in his view, he had slowed sufficiently that he was not going to collide with Magnussen and that he barely misjudged it,” they stated in a press release.
Ricciardo retired on the spot and McLaren staff mate Lando Norris additionally failed to complete, leaving the staff 19 factors behind Renault-owned Alpine within the battle for fourth place within the championship and solely Abu Dhabi remaining.
“I believe the largest disappointment is that it was such a small contact nevertheless it had huge penalties,” stated Ricciardo, who apologised to the staff.
“I really feel most occasions, a small contact like that, you will get away with it. So it was fairly unlucky for each of us,” added the Australian, who has no race seat lined up for subsequent season.