Daniel Ricciardo fumes about his team’s approach at Hungarian GP
Daniel Ricciardo has raged about his team’s pit strategy and the absence of an apology. The Hungarian GP was an eventful twist in the Australian veteran’s topsy-turvy battle to remain on the grid.
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Daniel Ricciardo was angry and frustrated to have finished outside the points in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo finished a lap down in 12th on Sunday 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.
It left him down the order, stuck in traffic, and powerless to attack.
Meanwhile, a different approach saw Yuki Tsunoda gain a place over his starting spot to score two championship points at the flag.
“Why they pitted me when they did at the beginning, we followed the soft cars in,” Ricciardo explained.
“They’ve just come in, we have a clear track, and we decided to get behind them and put ourselves in a DRS train.
“I mean, I’ve had a lot of races and I’ve had a lot of frustrating races, but that’s up there.
“We had the pace and we basically gave Yuki the race that we had in front of us, and we both could have done that, and we didn’t.”
Ricciardo was among the first to pit on Lap 7, following Fernando Alonso into the lane a lap after Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, and Esteban Ocon had boxed.
The Australian had slipped behind Albon and Magnussen off the line, the pair having started the race on soft tyres while Ricciardo was on mediums.
But rather than using his tyres to extend the opening stint, the eight-time race winner feels the team erred in following their rivals’ calls.
As a consequence, Ricciardo spent much of the first half of the race in 16th.
Tsunoda meanwhile stopped for the first time on Lap 29, having spent most of the opening stint inside the top 10.
Once the pit stop cycle settled, it left the Japanese driver ninth.
In the car, Ricciardo admitted he instinctively knew an early stop was the wrong strategic call, but had no time to question it.
“It’s a late call, box, box, box, and you pit,” Ricciardo explained.
“Honestly, as soon as I’m pulling in the pits I’m questioning it, but you can’t [do anything about it]. You get called in Turn 13 and you have to react.
“We talk about strategies and that, but two cars jumped us at the start with a soft tyre. That’s fine, let them go,” he added.
“They pit and we follow them to then just be on their strategy.
“We would have had clear air and a chance to, I think from what I understand, do Yuki’s race [had we stayed out].
“Honestly, I was expecting more. On the in-lap I was waiting for ‘Sorry, we f----- up’, and I didn’t get it.
“That made me even more angry.”
Frustrated with the decision to pit him early, Ricciardo was then bemused by requests to then fend off Lance Stroll in the latter stages.
“Stroll’s catching me a second a lap and maybe more, and they’re saying it’s really important to keep him behind.
“What do you want me to do? You’ve pitted me so early, I’m on older tyres, so I’m also being expected to fight when we’re not really in a fight anymore.
“That was also frustrating. It’s like there were times where I just felt like the bed was made.”
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Originally published as Daniel Ricciardo fumes about his team’s approach at Hungarian GP
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