Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 team make honest admission after GP nightmare
Daniel Ricciardo was left seething after his own team ruined his latest Grand Prix, now they’ve made a frank admission about it.
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It may be a day late but Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 team, Visa Cash App RB, have finally admitted they made a race-ruining mistake.
The Australian Formula 1 driver was left infuriated following the Hungarian Grand Prix after finishing outside the points.
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Ricciardo finished a lap down in 12th after starting ninth on the grid.
He lost two places off the start but felt his race unravelled due to a poor strategy call from the RB pit wall that saw him pit on the eighth lap despite starting on the medium compound tyre.
After the race the Aussie expressed his frustration over the team radio to engineer Pierre Hamelin.
“I’m really trying to bite my tongue, but you must know how I feel about the first stop,” Ricciardo said.
“Understood,” replied Hamelin.
“If you feel the same, please,” Ricciardo added, pushing for his engineer to admit they got it wrong.
“We’ll review everything. I don’t know what to say now,” Hamelin said in response.
Ricciardo said he was waiting for a “sorry we f***ed up” after the race but received nothing, which only made him “even more angry”.
Ricciardo has finally got his wish, even if it has come later than he’d hoped with RB admitting they’d made a mistake.
“Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points,” Team Principal Laurent Mekies said.
“His pace had been extremely strong all weekend long, and he demonstrated that again in the final stint of the race when he was finally able to find some free air and fight his way back. “We certainly share his frustration, and we will learn and come back stronger next week. Now we move on to Spa, a very different challenge to the Hungaroring.
“We go there with the positives of our strong weekend here and will push very hard to get our car to work as best it can at this fast and flowing track.”
Guillaume Dezoteux, head of vehicle performance, also further explained why the team made the decision to pit Ricciardo so early at the time.
“Both cars had a good start but lost positions to the soft runners in the opening laps,” he said.
“Some cars started to pit early, and we reacted with Daniel, which put him in heavy traffic and did not allow him to use his pace. Anticipating his second stop allowed us to gain a few positions back and Daniel could show good lap times, but it wasn’t enough to end up in the points for him and he finished P12.
“With Yuki, we decided to extend the first stint. His good tyre management and the consistency of lap times opened the possibility of doing a one-stop race, which is what we went for.
“This strategy allowed us to beat the two Aston Martins which is a great achievement, concluding this weekend on a high note.”
The Formula 1 paddock rolls into Belgium for this weekend’s Grand Prix before the summer break commences.
Originally published as Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 team make honest admission after GP nightmare
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