Ricciardo seething after RB admit to strategy blunder
Matt Clayton
Monday, 22 July 2024
Daniel Ricciardo qualified in the top 10 and started on the optimum medium-compound tyre in Hungary, but an early pit stop condemned him to an afternoon of “just driving around” as he finished 12th.
Daniel Ricciardo felt “a lot of anger” after his Hungarian Grand Prix fizzled out through a baffling early pit stop on Sunday, the Australian left furious after a top-10 qualifying effort turned into a 12th-place finish after 70 frustrating laps.
RB’s mid-season upgrades introduced in Spain last month had seen the team fall backwards into the clutches of Haas for sixth in the constructors’ championship, but Ricciardo in particular was far more competitive in Budapest than he’d been in recent weekends, leading Q1 on Saturday and qualifying ninth, ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda after the Japanese driver crashed and caused a red flag in Q3.
Advertisement
Starting on medium-compound tyres, Ricciardo was shuffled back by the soft-shod Williams of Alex Albon and Haas of Kevin Magnussen on lap one, but was taken aback when he was asked to pit for hard tyres just seven laps into the race, leaving him mired in the midfield with no way to escape strategically.
Afterwards, the normally upbeat Australian was visibly furious on a weekend where speculation surrounding Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull Racing – and whether or not Ricciardo is seen as a viable alternative to replace him – increased ahead of the upcoming mid-season break.
“That was one of the worst ones [strategy decisions] I’ve had in 250-something races, that was a long old frustrating race where I just had a lot of anger,” Ricciardo said.
“You don’t want to pull in the pits … you get the call, and you know this isn’t the thing to do. You get the call late and there’s no time to question it, because then if you miss a lap it’s even worse. But as soon as I pulled in, the cars on soft [tyres] had [already] pulled in, we’re on a medium [tyre] so let’s go, let’s use the pace we’ve got – and then we come out in traffic and it’s just a DRS train and, for what? We’re all then on the same tyre.
“I felt like we’d taken ourselves out of the race so early, and then we’re expected to fight a car that’s coming one second a lap quicker on newer tyres. What do you want me to do? We just made it so difficult for ourselves when we had pace and we could have just stayed out, clear air, stay calm and do what we’d done all weekend.
“We did a race today, but we didn’t do a race if you know what I mean. We were just driving around.”
RB team principal Laurent Mekies apologised after Ricciardo’s race, his pain of losing points compounded by Tsunoda being placed on a one-stop strategy and finishing ninth.
“We got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points,” 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.
Daniel's Hungarian Grand Prix by the numbers
- Qualified: 9th
- Race: 12th
- Fastest lap: 1min 22.640secs (12th), lap 30
- Points this event: 0
- Points this season: 11 (13th in world championship)
