Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that Red Bull opted to pay him a podium bonus despite him being disqualified from the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo joined Red Bull at the end of 2013 after racing with their junior team, Toro Rosso, for the previous two years.
On his debut with Red Bull Racing, the Aussie crossed the finish line in second position in the 2014 season-opener in Melbourne.
However, Ricciardo was later disqualified from his home grand prix due to an illegal fuel flow rate.
Speaking about his and the team’s emotions following his disqualification, Ricciardo said it felt like a wake.
“It was definitely, I would say on the surface, more of a wake,” Ricciardo said on the In The Fast Lane podcast.
“I think internally there was some celebrating inside me, because I knew what I’d achieved on that weekend. I’d kind of ticked the box to myself that ‘OK I can do this, I can race at the front’.
“I remember I had a lot of mates there and we’d kind of organised a few drinks in the hotel room, and I remember the bathtub was full of ice and drinks, but it wasn’t really the atmosphere to go.
“Actually it was when I got to the room, when everyone was there, that I got the call from Jonathan Wheatley [Red Bull Racing’s sporting director], telling me what I knew was coming, but he confirmed it.
“There was a few hugs and whatever, but it was pretty mellow unfortunately,” he added.
However, Ricciardo noted that he was partly cheered up by the fact he was still paid a podium bonus by Red Bull.
“I think what cheered me up is – I’m sure they won’t mind me saying this, actually it puts them in good light – I think the day after, I think it was Christian [Horner] called me and said, ‘Look, we’ll still pay your podium bonus’.
“So that was nice. That softened the blow a little bit! That was like my first real pay cheque in the sport, so I was quite happy.”
The Aussie ultimately scored his maiden F1 podium just a handful of grand prix later in Barcelona.
He continued to sporadically score podiums over the course of his Red Bull career, which came to a close at the end of 2018.