Seidl confirms Ricciardo was on for Saudi points

Daniel Ricciardo has received an apology from his McLaren boss Andreas Seidl for the problem that cost him possible Saudi Arabian Grand Prix points.

The Australian is enduring another tough start to a season with McLaren, having been forced to miss official testing when he contracted COVID-19 and then finishing 14th in Bahrain with a car that was well off the pace.

Things looked like taking a turn for the better when Ricciardo was running 11th, ahead of his team-mate Lando Norris, in Jeddah and in with a chance of scoring his first points of the campaign when he lost drive on lap 38 and had to retire, only being able to roll the car down the pit lane.

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An early pit-stop to change his medium tyres for a set of the hard compound on lap nine – the first driver to do so – had looked like potentially playing into Ricciardo’s hands.

We’ll keep at it. Building towards #AusGP. @DanielRicciardo pic.twitter.com/mOnWfYwVBa

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 28, 2022

“Obviously we can only apologise to Daniel that we didn’t give him the material he deserves to have because from his side I think it was a strong weekend,” said Seidl, quoted by GPFans.

“With the strategy we chose with him, to offset him a bit from everyone else after he was stuck in the early stint, I think it would have paid off and I think he could have finished right where Lando finished.”

Norris ended up