Ricciardo’s team fesses up to costly mistake

Team RB has apologised for a mistake that hindered Daniel Ricciardo’s chances of scoring points at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo had qualified ninth-fastest but was left frustrated when team officials sent him to the pits after lap eight, despite starting the race on medium tyres.
The premature call led to the Australian falling further behind after he dropped to 11th early in the race.
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Ricciardo could not hide his displeasure after the race during his chat with engineer Pierre Hamelin.
“I’m really trying to bite my tongue, but you must know how I feel about the first stop,” Ricciardo said.
“Understood,” replied Hamelin.
“If you feel the same, please…” Ricciardo added.
“We’ll review everything. I don’t know what to say now,” Hamelin responded.
Speaking to reporters, Ricciardo said the fact the team did not own up to the mistake initially, made him “even more angry”.
However, the team has now come out and acknowledged the blunder, in the regular round-up interviews published on the F1’s official website.
“Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points,” team principal Laurent 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, and we will learn and come back stronger next week. Now we move on to Spa, a very different challenge to the Hungaroring.
“We go there with the positives of our strong weekend here and will push very hard to get our car to work as best it can at this fast and flowing track.”
Guillaume Dezoteux, head of vehicle performance, also spoke.
“Both cars had a good start but lost positions to the soft runners in the opening laps,” he said.
“Some cars started to pit early, and we reacted with Daniel, which put him in heavy traffic and did not allow him to use his pace. Anticipating his second stop allowed us to gain a few positions back and Daniel could show good lap times, but it wasn’t enough to end up in the points for him and he finished P12.
“With Yuki, we decided to extend the first stint. His good tyre management and the consistency of lap times opened the possibility of doing a one-stop race, which is what we went for. This strategy allowed us to beat the two Aston Martins which is a great achievement, concluding this weekend on a high note.”