28/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo: "Today was very similar to yesterday; I'm quite pleased as I feel like we had a really strong two-stop race, but unfortunately so did some others and I think they had a bit more pace than us, so it wasn't good enough to get rewarded.
Esteban (Ocon) was generally a bit quicker and also had fresher tyres, so I'm disappointed with our final result, as we tried our best to keep the tenth place in the last few laps. It was a positive weekend and I'm leaving Spa content and fulfilled, which pleases me entering the summer break. Looking ahead after the break, I'm excited to get back to Zandvoort and we'll keep the momentum going from the last few races."
Yuki Tsunoda: "We've been struggling for pace this weekend and also during the race today. I haven't been feeling fully comfortable and it seems there was something going on from what I heard from my engineers after the race, so we'll sit down together and look through the data. The strategy didn't work out for us today, but we always knew it would be challenging given our starting position. We'll keep pushing as a team and do as much as we can to maintain our position in the constructors as it remains a tight midfield."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "Overall, Daniel, Yuki, and the whole team performed quite strongly this weekend, with another race scoring points thanks to George's last minute penalty. We were P14 with Daniel after lap one, and we made it back to P10, having lost P9 only a couple of laps from the end. It was a very tough fight again at the top of that midfield group, and on a very fast track layout like Spa we were again in that fight and that's a good sign for the rest of the season"
"On Yuki's side, we knew coming into this race that our work plan would be different to usual, with Yuki having to start from the back. It was a near impossible mission to make it back to the points from there, and it is fair to say that we never quite managed to have a car that felt right for him this weekend.
"From day one, our aim has been to race as credible competitors at the top of the mid-field and this summer break is a logical time to look at where we stand. We enjoyed a very strong first half of the season in which we built up our performance race after race, scoring points at 10 out of 14 races. We are fighting hard for that P6 in the Constructors', against very strong competitors, and it's going to be a tough battle all the way to Abu Dhabi. Our groups in Faenza and in Bicester are getting stronger every day, and we look forward to the next battles.
"We now have a few days' work either side of the summer break, before tackling the last 10 races in several time zones, all of them back-to-backs or triple-headers. We actually won't have a standalone race now until Miami at the start of May next year! Proof that Formula 1 is enjoying huge worldwide popularity, and we are happy to be part of it. It is certainly a tough schedule, particularly for the mechanics, so the pause is well deserved after everyone has worked so hard to get our new Visa Cash App RB reality off to a really positive start."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Spa here.