Daniel Ricciardo says his failure to finish the United States Grand Prix was the lowest moment in a frustrating campaign that saw his Red Bull car suffer eight DNFs across the campaign. No driver suffered as many retirements as the Australian in 2018.
In what has ultimately become Ricciardo's final Red Bull campaign ahead of a 2019 switch to Renault, the Australian took two wins – in China and Monaco – but did not step on the podium in any of the remaining 19 races.
Ricciardo retired on lap eight at COTA in a race that teammate Max Verstappen finished second after starting 18th on the grid.
A post shared by Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) on Dec 8, 2018 at 2:39am PST
Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealed after the race that Ricciardo had punched a hole in the wall of his driver room and it appears the pain still runs deep after a season that featured plenty of troughs to counteract the peaks.
"It all started in Melbourne, before the season even started," Ricciardo said in Red Bull's 'On The Sofa' season review.
"In practice I got the penalty for not slowing enough for that red flag so that started with putting my elbows through the door of my room.
"A week later I tried to channel that energy into Bahrain and my race finished after one lap…so I put my knee through the door in that one and it kind of spiralled.
"And there was the fist in Austin, and Austin was the worst one. Austin, I don't know why, I just reached a real low."