Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he needed a second seat fitting at McLaren after his found himself too wide in his first.
At 178cm, the Australian is only the eighth tallest driver on the Formula 1 grid this season, 7cm shorter than former teammate Esteban Ocon.
Yet despite that, has had a history of struggling to fit in new cars when he changes teams, in particular sliding into Adrian Newey’s notoriously small cockpits at Red Bull.
“I do have wide hips – I guess. I’m pretty thick boned,” said Ricciardo.
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“So when I got in [at McLaren], it was kind of the first mock-up of the seat, with the dimensions that they had, they kind of assumed what would be okay for me, but it wasn’t quite okay.
“Fortunately, it was just the seat and it wasn’t the actual keel itself that is too narrow. Since then I have been able to get in a seat and I do fit.”
In recent years, designers have been slimming down their F1 cars in the push for performance, leaving Ricciardo requesting just a little more breathing room.
“I feel like I’m certainly the limit,” he said. “I think the way they design the cars and the chassis now, everything’s trying to be as tight and compact as possible.
“Really my hips are sometimes the limiting factor. So, I just tell them, ‘just make sure I’m comfortable, and if you think that loses you a tenth of aerodynamics, then I’ll just drive faster on track!”