16/04/2021
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo has eased back in his criticism of F1, particularly its social media and website, using crashes to seemingly promote the sport.
Speaking to UK lifestyle magazine, Square Mile, recently, the Australian hit out at the sport's attempt to use images and film of crashes to promote the sport and encourage new fans.
"Last year, F1 put on their social channels, like, 'top ten moments of the year' or something, and eight of the ten were crashes," he said.
"I was like, 'you guys are f****** idiots'," he continued. "Maybe 12-year-old kids want to see that kind of content, and that's cool because they don't know any better, but we're not kids. Just do better, guys. Do better than that."
However, speaking in Imola, either having had time to think about his comment - or, more likely, the powers that be having 'had a word' - Ricciardo reigned in his criticism.
"I've certainly got to be better with my choice of words," he said. "I certainly, if I could, take that quote back… It was too aggressive.
"I should know better as well, being in the sport probably as long as I have," he added.
"Even if I feel at the time, it might be out of context, I know that it's going to get pushed, and so I should do better with that.
"I'm not denying I said it," he insisted, "but the tone doesn't always get shown as maybe it was in that moment.
"And it could just be me as well; sometimes I might just get too comfortable with whoever is conducting the interview and I might just take it a little lightly."
The layout of the virtual press conference preventing Ricciardo from any actual hand-wringing or squirming in his seat, the Australian, nonetheless, continued his public act of contrition.
"I felt last year was such an amazing year for F1," he said. "There were so many different podium getters, there was a lot of exciting races, I certainly wouldn't put it under a boring season.
"So I just felt like there was probably more room to expose the highs of the sport, and the great achievements of a lot of individual drivers and individual performances. Whether some spectacular overtakes, I felt like there was better stories to be told, as opposed to just crashes.
"This is obviously my opinion," he admitted, "but I feel our sport is better than that... I feel like we're better than just showing crashes.
"I feel like we are the most talented drivers in the world and we're driving these amazing cars, so, normally, a crash is showing less of our talents. We absolutely make mistakes but I would probably highlight the highs more if I had creative control.
"I've apologised, I would obviously take back at least the language from those comments, but that was overall my opinion of what I would do if I had a chance to direct it a little bit."
The old-fashion term was "bottled it".
Check out our Friday gallery from Imola, here.