Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he had a “productive” discussion with Formula 1 over the decision to repeatedly replay Romain Grosjean’s incident at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Immediately after the race, Ricciardo said that he was “disgusted” by the “Hollywood” treatment of Haas driver Grosjean’s fiery crash, from which the Frenchman escaped with burns to his hands that have kept him out of this weekend’s Sakhir GP.
Discussing his comments on Saturday in Bahrain, Ricciardo revealed he had spoken with F1’s head of marketing and communications Ellie Norman, and was pleased with how the discussions had gone.
“I spoke with Ellie on Thursday evening,” he revealed. “Already after Sunday they offered to come and chat but last Sunday there was a lot going on, so I wanted to postpone it.
“I think it was certainly worthwhile hearing them out, because I do not want to blast them in the media and then run away from them. I chatted for half an hour with Ellie and she went through a lot of stuff, and I gave my feedback.
“There was nothing like confronting, she was very understanding and appreciative and accepted my concerns as well. She didn’t push back, I think she was trying to listen and learn as well, how they could maybe do things differently. But she also talked me through the reasons why they broadcast what they did.”
“One thing was… and actually maybe some broadcasters do it… kind of like a bit of a warning to preempt the audience, like there’s going to be some graphic images, and that way if you have younger kids you have a bit of time to maybe pull them away from the TV or something.
“Ross Brawn mentioned there is something like that, or there is a bit of a context in place. It was productive, they didn’t attack me or anything like that!
“It was quite a worthwhile thing, and they deserved for me to hear them out.”
And while Ricciardo was by far the most vocal critic, he says he wasn’t the only F1 driver who had concerns.
“I feel like some drivers are a bit, I don’t want to say too proud, or too brave, they’re kind of like… I’m sure a lot of us felt it. Did I question getting back in the car? The answer’s no.
“But I guess I just wanted them to consider what we have to go through as well.”