Daniel Ricciardo insists he was more angered with RB not apologising over the strategic call that ruined his Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix than the actual decision.
Ricciardo, who expressed that he was treating the two races prior to the break as the “most important” in his career, was angling to land points from ninth on the grid.
However, Ricciardo’s chances were wrecked when he lost two places at the start and RB then elected to respond to Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen pitting on Lap 6.
That transpired to be the wrong choice as Ricciardo spent the remaining laps unable to make up ground as he preserved his rubber on a track where passing is tough.
Meanwhile, RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who started 10th, went longer on his original starting Mediums and produced an assured drive to come home in ninth place.
“Why they pitted me when they did at the beginning, we followed the Softs cars in,” Ricciardo, who trailed home 12th, explained.
“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.
“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.”
The Australian has conceded that he was unsure about the call to pit as soon as it arrived, but it was too late to discuss the matter with race engineer Pierre Hamelin.
“It’s a late call, box, box, box, and you pit,” he expanded.
“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 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. They pit and we follow them to then just be on their strategy.
Ricciardo’s exasperation was heightened when he was told to repel Lance Stroll’s advances at a time when the Aston Martin driver was fitted with much newer rubber.
“Stroll’s catching me a second a lap and maybe more, and they’re saying it’s really important to keep him behind,” he recalled.
“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.”
However, Ricciardo has expressed that he was more incensed post-race when no apologies were forthcoming on the radio over the decisions that denied him points.
“We would have had clear air and a chance to, I think from what I understand, do Yuki’s race [had we stayed out],” he reiterated.
“Honestly, I was expecting more. On the in-lap I was waiting for ‘Sorry, we f***ed up’, and I didn’t get it. That made me even more angry.”
