Daniel Ricciardo laments F1 shocker, Mercedes plagued by tyre problems as Max Verstappen wins
He went into the race full of confidence after a blistering qualifying, but a strategic mistake and then a spin out has left Daniel Ricciardo fighting back tears after the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
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Daniel Ricciardo has lamented the poor strategy that caused him to fall from qualifying fourth to finishing 14th in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Buoyed by a fourth place finish at the British Grand Prix a week ago, the Aussie went into the race full of confidence after a blistering qualifying.
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But it went from bad to worse, with the Renault driver ruing a decision to run an old pair of medium tyres during the middle stages before spinning out as he battled Carlos Sainz later in the race.
“It was a race that started here, then went into a bit of a hole,” Ricciardo said.
“I’m trying not to cry about it but it’s just one of those days.
“We’ve got to learn from it.
“A Sunday with great hope and little reward.”
The mistake with the tyre strategy gave the Western Australian no chance.
“(The race) kept getting away from us,” he said.
“We came out in a group, obviously, because the medium stint wasn’t good.
“Then we were in the fight, tried to defend from Carlos and I lost the car.
“The spin put us really out of the race, and then I killed those tyres because of the spin so our race was done.
“It just got away from us.
“It’s a shame.”
VERSTAPPEN SWOOPS ON HAMILTON’S ‘BALLOON’ DEBACLE
A flawless Max Verstappen has claimed for Red Bull the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone, amid champion Lewis Hamilton’s fears his tyres would explode.
Hamilton compared his Pirelli tyres to balloons on Sunday after he and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered serious blistering problems at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
Just a week after his dramatic victory on three wheels, with a punctured fourth, Hamilton admitted he was afraid one of his tyres might explode.
Three cars had suffered tyre failures at Silverstone last weekend, but Pirelli pressed ahead with a decision to introduce softer tyres running at higher pressures than previously, much to the concern of many teams.
The two Mercedes drivers finished second and third in an unexpected upset result that saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen storm to his first win of the season and ninth of his career.
Hamilton said Mercedes had struggled with tyres and had no immediate answer to the problem.
“That middle stint, even in the first one, I started to fall back to Max,” he said.
“I was managing the tyres like you couldn’t below.
“In the middle stint, one half was bald and the other half was OK.
“At the end, I was driving with half a tyre, I was afraid it was going to explode.
“The team will work hard now identify our tyre problems.
“Pirelli had tyre failures last week – and then the pressure (tyre pressure) on them goes up and up and up so they’re like balloons, you know?
“I’m not sure anyone else struggled with blistering like we did so we’ll look into it.”
A clever strategic choice by Red Bull’s senior strategy engineer Hannah Schmitz to start the race on hard compound tyres while most or their rivals opted for mediums, laid the foundations for Verstappen’s victory, but it was the Dutch tyro’s courage and speed that did the rest.
“Max was just chilling out at the beginning of the race, we had them covered today,” team boss Christian Horner said.
“Whatever they did, when they pitted, they could not pull away — Max was able to cover them.”
Verstappen said the victory was “very satisfying for us”.
“We could have won last week when they had tyre blowouts, but that would not have been the same, but today was very good because we beat them on pure pace.
“They (Mercedes) really struggled on their tyres.
“They are too soft for this track, but (for us) it is shame that we won’t see them again at other tracks.”
When Verstappen was asked to ease off in the early stages, to save his tyres, he rejected the idea saying “this is our chance to close up to the Mercedes — so I’m not going to drive like a grandma and follow them!”
Later, as he closed in on victory, he found the spare time and mental space to remind his team to obey the coronavirus health protocols.
“Did you hydrate during the race?” he asked.
“You must have some sweaty hands, as well, so don’t forget to sanitise.”
Picking up on his Dutchman’s sense of humour afterwards, Horner told him his victory was “a perfectly sanitised race.”
Aussie Daniel Ricciardo finished a disappointing 14th, unable to replicate his fourth-place success of last week in his Renault.
Hamilton paid tribute to Verstappen.
“It was a massive challenge today,” Hamilton said.
“But congratulations to Red Bull, and to Max. They did a great job.
“They didn’t have the problems that we had and it was unexpected for us to have the blistering as hardcore as we experienced.”
He said he was glad to have survived the race without a puncture and to have found some pace to claim second at the finish.
“I’m grateful to have progressed like I did,” he said.
“I was pushing pretty heavily.
Bottas was frustrated by both his tyre problems and his Mercedes team’s strategy decisions.
“It was frustrating for us,” Bottas said.
“My strategy was far from ideal and there are lots to learn from today.
“It was an opportunity to win, from pole, and I had an opportunity to keep up with Max, but as soon as I started to push the tyres just fell apart.
“Blistering was an issue for us and it seemed that Red Bull had none, so they had an edge.
“Tyres just overheat. It’s basically boiling. You get holes in the tyres and then you just lose grip.”
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Verstappen’s first win of 2020, and ninth of his career, enabled him to leapfrog Bottas and take second, 30 points behind Hamilton in the drivers’ championship.
On a day of personal and family landmarks, the 22-year-old racer passed his father Jos as the Dutchman to have started most Formula One races and confirmed himself as the Netherlands most successful driver.
While Jos made 106 starts from 107 Grand Prix entries, Max has now started 107 from 107 and, with nine wins and 35 podiums, stands alone as his country’s greatest F1 driver.
He said he believed Red Bull can move closer to the speed of the Mercedes and sometimes put pressure on them, notably in hot conditions like those at Silverstone on Sunday, and forecast for the Spanish Grand Prix in Catalonia next week.