No matter how well you drive in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, sometimes things happen that are simply out of your control.
Valtteri Bottas was one victim of such an event on Sunday when the engine in his Sauber gave up.
Reviewing the race for Sky Sports F1, former world champion Damon Hill highlighted another driver who was dealing with issues outside of his control.
The gap between the top five and bottom five teams on the grid has made scoring points very difficult for half of the grid.
Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg have been the best of the rest this season, although the Japanese driver’s race was ended by Kevin Magnussen.
The Dane was given plenty of space but a momentary loss of control saw him break Tsunoda’s suspension.
Damon Hill was left lamenting how unlucky his teammate Daniel Ricciardo was after his second DNF on the bounce.
He was fighting for points in Shanghai until being caught up in one of the major talking points of the race.
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Damon Hill can’t believe how unlucky Daniel Ricciardo is
Bottas’s previously mentioned retirement forced the first safety car of the race after marshals couldn’t quickly shift his Sauber.
Max Verstappen backed up the rest of the grid for the restart and decided to drop the hammer just after the final hairpin on the circuit.
A lockup from Fernando Alonso forced all the cars behind him to take evasive action, with the gap between each car getting smaller and smaller as a result.
Lance Stroll was the unfortunate driver not to stop in time and careened into the back of Ricciardo’s car.
The Australian attempted to carry on but significant damage to his diffuser made the car undriveable.
Damon Hill has now shared how unlucky he believes Ricciardo has been all season.
While these scenarios need to be taken into consideration, Red Bull and RB will eventually run out of patience if he doesn’t start delivering points.
Daniel Ricciardo’s bid to stay in F1 takes another hit
Talking about the eight-time race winner, Hill said: “He’s broken a mirror or something hasn’t he? I mean he’s had so much bad luck on top of bad form and other things that might be causing that.
“But anyway, it’s got to change for him.
“This is only race five in the season, this is a long season. There’s a lot of racing to come and a lot will change in the next six races.
“It’s going to be a pretty different complexion I think.”
Daniel Ricciardo will be hoping his unlucky streak ends soon, but as Hill explained, there’s still an awful lot of racing to do in 2024.
There was a suggestion that Liam Lawson could replace him for the Miami Grand Prix, but that has since been denied by his management.
He still only has a contract until the end of the season and the young RB reserve driver is expected to be on the grid in 2025.
That means Ricciardo and Tsunoda might be fighting over a single seat for next year.
So far, you would say that the 23-year-old is the better option but anything can happen over the next few months.
The post ‘He’s broken a mirror’: Damon Hill simply can’t believe how unlucky 8-time race winner is after Chinese GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.