‘Crazy’ weekend disqualified Ricciardo rose to stardom

It was perhaps the greatest result of his fledgling career, and perhaps still is just as good as any of his eight grand prix wins.

It’s been 10 years since then and Ricciardo’s career has gone through peaks and troughs, but he’s never been able to stand on the podium at his home race again. 

In fact, no Australian has ever stood on the podium legitimately in the Formula 1 world championship era.

That weekend marked a new era in F1 with the advent of turbocharged hybrid V6 engines.

Fresh off Sebastian Vettel winning his fourth world championship with Red Bull, there were great expectations for the team to continue that trend even with the new engine formula.

In remarkable scenes, Ricciardo upstaged his veteran Red Bull teammate in qualifying. Vettel famously bombed out in Q2 while the hometown hero advanced to Q3.

There was elation and agony in the grandstands as the chequered flag fell on the final leg of qualifying. 

Ricciardo rose to the top with the fastest time but just seconds later was pipped to pole position by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Such was the noise of the hundred-thousand-strong crowd that Ricciardo could hear them over his engine.

“That was the first year of the hybrids and they were still pretty quiet back then — I mean, not that they’re crazy loud now, but they were definitely quieter,” Ricciardo recalled of qualifying, speaking to Wide World of Sports.

“I remember when I crossed the line and I lifted off the throttle to save fuel, when the revs dropped a bit I could hear something and I was like, ‘Oh, this could be quite good!’ and then obviously I think it was (Lewis) Hamilton came around and got the pole after me. 

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“I just remember that day was crazy because of course I was nervous and whatever – and it’s a wet street circuit pretty much, so it’s always kind of sketchy – and I remember I came in, I think during Q3, I came in to fit inters (intermediate tyres), I got off the extreme (wet tyres) and puts on inters. It was just like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it, let’s go’. 

“I was so locked in. Maybe I was just young and ignorant, I don’t know, but I was just so in a way unfazed by it once I was in the car. I was so comfortable and it was awesome. 

“I remember going through the last corner, I understeered a bit and kind of missed the good wet line and I reckon there was at least a couple of tenths in that. So I reckon I was close to pole without that, but I was still so, so stoked on the front row.”

In a race of attrition, Ricciardo wound up crossing the line in second behind race winner Nico Rosberg for Mercedes and ahead of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen.

Lewis Hamilton’s engine was one of five to fail while two more crashed out on the opening lap in a race of 13 finishers.

For the first time, fans got to see the famous Cheshire grin on the podium.

“I was always really glad that I got disqualified after at least the podium,” Ricciardo said.

“So obviously, at the time the podium felt real, you know, the crowd felt real. Obviously it doesn’t hold up in the history books, but I would say like – and I’m not claiming it – but as a feeling I experienced what an Aussie feels like standing on the Aussie podium, you know what I mean? So I did get that home crowd fricken buzz and that was awesome. 

“I think Alan Jones was the one presenting the trophies and doing the interviews and it was just a crazy evening.”

Then came the bad news.

Five hours after the finish, Ricciardo was disqualified for exceeding the maximum allowed fuel flow. Red Bull unsuccessfully appealed the penalty and the result remained.

“I remember we were in the debrief with the engineers and then we get handed a piece of paper and we’re like, ‘Oh, this isn’t good’ or it was maybe on an email saying we’ve been called to the stewards,” he said.

“Part of me was like, ‘Oh, yeah, maybe it is too good to be true in a way’. All that happened and I was obviously upset. I was definitely upset because it was the fairytale that didn’t have the ending.”

All was not lost in Ricciardo’s eyes.

He’d beaten his four-time world championship-winning teammate, he’d finished second, and he got to enjoy it all at home.

“I’d proved so much to myself that weekend and to the team that the result didn’t even matter,” Ricciardo said.

“Like the team were so pumped for me and they took a risk on me when they signed me because they knew I was fast but they didn’t really know if I could do the job and handle the pressure and whatever. 

“I think them just seeing me put in pretty much like a flawless weekend in my first weekend with the team at home with all the pressure — I think they were like who cares about the second? We’ve got ourselves a kid that can really do something with us. We all just had this, like, really nice confidence about us moving forward.”

That year remains the best in Ricciardo’s career.

He won in his seventh race with Red Bull in Canada and twice more in Hungary and Belgium, beating Vettel in the drivers’ championship.

“It was definitely one of my proudest, I think,” Ricciardo said of that year’s Australian Grand Prix.

“The whole doing it at home was one thing, but yeah that weekend itself gave me so much more self-belief and confidence. That set up maybe my best year in Formula 1, so that was such a pivotal weekend. 

“There were just even little things like I remember myself and Hamilton didn’t get the best start, but I had like a little look on him in turn one and I got the move done. So even just passing Hamilton into turn one, being a little bit more aggressive on a race start, these were things that I’d really put a lot of pressure on myself to do and be that person coming into that season. Also that kind of just starting the season on the right foot. 

“I was like, ‘OK, I can do this’.”