Daniel Ricciardo claims lack of RB apology made him ‘even more angry’ during Hungarian GP
Daniel Ricciardo had started the race in ninth place.
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Daniel Ricciardo (via IMAGO)
Red Bull have found themselves in an awkward position as Sergio Perez has been unable to perform and help them in the fight. This has seemingly created interest in the pool of drivers waiting to take on the seat at Milton Keynes. Moreover, Daniel Ricciardo has been the leading candidate to replace the Mexican and even got into Q3 during qualifying, but his race unraveled quickly as hit strategy made him fall out of points. This left the Aussie infuriated as he claimed the team owed him an apology.
Daniel Ricciardo is a former race winner in Hungary. The 35-year-old is well aware of the track’s characteristics and qualified his car on the fifth row, which gave him a great chance at scoring points. However, the Aussie was jumped by the soft tire runners and was subsequently pitted into a DRS train ruining his race.
Ricciardo questioned the team’s decisions as he was on the harder compound in comparison to his rivals and could have extended his stint.
Why they [RB] pitted me when they did at the beginning - we followed the soft [tyre] cars in. They've just come in, we have a clear track and we decide to pit behind them and put ourselves in a DRS train - and on the same tyre, all on the hard [compound]. I've had a lot of races, I've had a lot of frustrating ones, but that's up there, because we had the pace... Honestly, I was expecting more. On the in lap, I was waiting for: 'sorry, we fucked up.' And I didn't get it. So that made me even more angry.Daniel Ricciardo said in an interview with RacingNews365
The former race winner lamented RB’s decisions and claimed the team to have botched his race. Feeling dejected, he reckoned that the Faneza-based team would apologize to him regarding the blunder, but was left even more angry when the team did not act accountable as they did not confess to their mistake.
Laurent Mekies admitted bottling Daniel Ricciardo’s race due to strategic blunder
As indicated earlier, Ricciardo was left angry due to the team’s actions. However, team principal Laurent Mekies soon admitted to their oversight and tried to calm the situation.
The RB team principal admitted the team’s mistake which ruined Ricciardo’s race.
Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points. 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, and we will learn and come back stronger next week.Laurent Mekies said in the newsletter by the team
The Frenchman reckoned that the 35-year-old had been strong all weekend. However, due to their lapse in judgment, they bottled his race down the drain, while the other RB of Yuki Tsunoda brought home points.
Despite his race being ruined, the Australian is still under consideration for the seat at Red Bull. Thus, his fortune could flip overnight if Horner and Co. decide that Ricciardo is the best suited to the job amid Sergio Perez‘s slump in performance.
In case you missed it:
- Lando Norris claims it was ‘tough’ to give back race lead to Oscar Pastri at Hungarian GP
- Helmut Marko admits Red Bull at “fault” over Max Verstappen’s Hungarian GP strategy
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)