23/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo feels there was much more on the table but that his team's poor strategic calls meant he was unable to capitalise.
Finishing the race 12th, a lap down on the leaders, the Australian could only look on as his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, grabbed another two points.
A poor start saw Ricciardo drop two places at the outset, while his teammate made up a place.
However, it was the strategy that Ricciardo feels caused his race to fall apart.
"Why they pitted me when they did at the beginning, we followed the soft cars in," he said. "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," he added. "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."
Losing out to (soft shod) Albon and Magnussen at the start, Ricciardo was confident that on his mediums the team would extend his opening stint. Instead however the Faenza based outfit opted to adopt the same strategy and pitted the Australian at the same time as the pair ahead of him.
"It's a late call, box, box, box, and you pit," he said. "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 at 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 continued. "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!"
The Australian, who, depending on who you believe in the media, is facing the chop or could replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull, could only look on as his teammate made only one stop, rarely dropping out of the leading ten.
Adding to Ricciardo's frustration was the call to hold off Lance Stroll in the latter stages of the race.
"Stroll's catching me a second a lap and maybe more, and they're saying it's really important to keep him behind," he said. "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."
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Hungaroring here.