‘No excuses’: F1 boss’ blunt assessment after Spanish GP nightmare

Daniel Ricciardo and his F1 team went into the Spanish Grand Prix with high hopes, what unfolded was a genuine nightmare.

A nightmare weekend unfolded for Ricciardo and his team. Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images/AFP

Another Formula 1 Grand Prix, another Max Verstappen win.

The Red Bull three-time world champion once again proved too good for the field as he took the chequered flag to win the Spanish Grand Prix.

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Verstappen crossed the line ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was left kicking himself after dropping from first to third on the first corner of the race.

Lewis Hamilton completed the podium at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit for the Mercedes seven-time former champion’s first podium of the season.

The win makes it Verstappen’s seventh of the season, his 61st in his career and his fourth at the track he first shot onto the F1 scene as a teenager in 2016.

But while all eyes were on the battle at the front of the field, it was deep down the order where Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda found themselves.

The VISA Cash App RB team went into the weekend with hopes high they could add to their points tally with a series of upgrades being put on the cars.

How wrong they were.

Max celebrates another win. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

A weekend to forget for Danny Ric. Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images/AFP

From the opening practice session both drivers were left in the dust of their rivals as the car crawled around the circuit.

In qualifying both Ricciardo and Tsunoda were knocked out in Q1 with things not getting much better when the lights went out for the race.

Tsunoda struggled to find any pace as he crossed the line only ahead of Williams driver Logan Sargeant.

Ricciardo managed to move his way up the order from his starting position of 18th as he ultimately finished in 15th spot.

But it was far from where the team had hoped they’d be placed with team boss Laurent Mekies delivering a brutal assessment of the horror weekend.

“We came here with high hopes for the upgrades that everyone back in the factory has worked so hard to design and produce as part of our aggressive development strategy,” Mekies said.

“Unfortunately, right from the start of Free Practice we were lacking pace in every session.

“There is no point denying this was a poor weekend for us and although the gaps were very small, there’s no excuses for the fact we just weren’t competitive.”

Laurent Mekies and Ricciardo talking in the garage. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

Despite the disappointing weekend and lowly finish in the race, the always smiling Ricciardo put a positive spin on it all but said the team have a lot of work to do ahead of next weekend.

“From the beginning, from a competitiveness (perspective), we weren’t there,” Ricciardo said.

“It was a really, really strange weekend for us, to have dropped off so much.

“My race today, honestly, I felt good.

“I was happy with the race, happy with what I got out of it, but yeah, 15th is not something that we can be happy about.

“With the package we had this weekend, I honestly don’t think we could have done anything better.

“I don’t want to say that makes everything better, it doesn’t, but we need to move on.

“I’ve got plenty of notes and feedback from the race today to give to the team tonight.

“In the next 48/72 hours, (there’s) lots of things to look at.”

Ricciardo and Tsunoda struggled all weekend. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

SPANISH GRAND PRIX RACE RESULTS

1st: Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 2nd: Lando Norris (McLaren)

3rd: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 4th: George Russell (Mercedes)

5th: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 6th: Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari)

7th: Oscar Piastri (McLaren), 8th: Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)

9th: Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 10th: Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

11th: Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), 12th: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

13th: Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber), 14th: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

15th: Daniel Ricciardo (RB), 16th: Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber)

17th: Kevin Magnussen (Haas), 18th: Alex Albon (Williams)

19th: Yuki Tsunoda (RB), 20th: Logan Sargeant (Williams)

Originally published as ‘No excuses’: F1 boss’ blunt assessment after Spanish GP nightmare