Ricciardo: 'Cheeky' drivers abusing qualifying agreement will get pay back
Daniel Ricciardo has made clear that drivers who fail to respect the gentleman's agreement that governs qualifying in F1 should "expect a bit of shit" to come their way at some point.
In qualifying, drivers are incited to respect the running order on an out-lap when warming up for a flyer, but the theoretical gentleman's agreement has been to subject of some abuse lately.
In Austria last weekend, Alpine's Fernando Alonso found himself on the receiving end of a messy situation at the end of Q2, when his flyer was ruined at the final corner by a slow-moving Sebastian Vettel who was himself in a train of cars waiting to make a final run.
In his defense, Vettel argued that several drivers had "jumped the queue" ahead of their run – or failed to respect F1's tacit agreement - to gain track position only to slow to create a gap before starting their flyer.
Alonso later said that the FIA should intervene to help enforce the gentleman's agreement, but Ricciardo believes drivers are capable of "sorting" things out on their own and give a going over on the track to those who don't remain in line.
"I think at the end of day, like if someone's been a bit cheeky and taken advantage of the situation that we've agreed, then that driver or those drivers should maybe just expect a bit of shit to come their way at some point," said the McLaren driver.
"That's the decision and the choice they make, so I'm happy for us to sort it out our own way."
Ricciardo's teammate Lando Norris suggested that a formal rule would perhaps avoid those who respect the agreement in qualifying from losing out unfairly.
"At some places it's fine, and you don't even have to speak about it, but when people don't want to go first, that's what the issue is," explained Norris.
"Then you get people overtaking you in to the last corner, and that's what screws everything up.
"I don't know if a rule needs to be in place, but maybe it does because people can just get caught out for no reason.
"For doing the correct thing, they can get screwed over and caught out, which isn't fair, in my opinion. But we're going to speak about it at the next drivers' briefing."
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