Daniel Ricciardo was furious with RB after what he feels was a botched Hungarian Grand Prix by his team.
The 34-year-old started the race at the Hungaroring in ninth place but fell behind early on, along with teammate Yuki Tsunoda, to rivals on softer tyres.
Alexander Albon’s Williams and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas displaced the RB pair from the top 10, both adapting to Pirelli’s medium compound.
However, when those on red wall tyres pitted after six laps, Ricciardo did the same a lap later at the urging of his team, a decision the Australian could not understand in retrospect.
It turned out to be a critical mistake from RB, as Ricciardo was unable to do anything in the race from that point on and finished 12th outside the points. To make matters worse, he was further angered by his team’s lack of apology.
“Greatly,” the eight-time Grand Prix winner responded to the media, including Racing365 News Asked if he was disappointed with his result, he said: “Why did they pit me when they did at the beginning? We were following the cars on soft tyres.”
“They just arrived, we have the track clear and we decided to pit behind them and get into a DRS train, and with the same tyre, all on hard compound.
“I’ve had a lot of races, I’ve had a lot of frustrations, but that’s there, because we had the pace…
“I was actually expecting more. On the inbound lap I was expecting someone to say, ‘I’m sorry, we screwed up.’ And I didn’t get that. That made me even angrier.”
Ricciardo longs for Tsunoda’s career
Ricciardo’s teammate performed better, which the Australian felt was the strategy he should have followed as well.
Tsunoda did not have to stop until lap 29 of the 70-lap race, by which time Ricciardo had already stopped for the second time.
The Japanese driver managed to maintain a points-paying position, finishing ninth, where his teammate started the Grand Prix.
“We basically gave Yuki (Tsunoda) the race that was in front of us, and we both could have done it, and we didn’t,” he said.
“I didn’t have time,” he replied when asked if he questioned RB’s decision. “It’s a late decision: ‘box box box’ and you go into the pits. But honestly, as soon as I go into the pits, I start to question, but you can’t; they call you at Turn 13 and you have to react.”
“We talked about strategies in that respect, but two cars overtook us at the start on soft tyres. It’s okay. We have to let them pass.”
“They come into the pits and we follow them and then follow their strategy. We would have had free air and the opportunity to – I think, from what I understand – do Yuki’s race.”
