Monaco - Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was in no mood to talk about the one that got away after a bungled pitstop wrecked his Monaco Grand Prix hopes on Sunday, but the Australian runner-up let rip anyway.
“Two weekends in a row I've been screwed now. It sucks. It hurts,” he told reporters.
“I got to the pits and everyone's running around like headless chooks (chickens). Massively, massively disappointed,” Ricciardo added.
“I don't like being up here being miserable, because I got a podium in Formula One, so it should be a good day, but when it happens two weekends in a row it's hard to take,” the Australian said.
Ricciardo had led the race from his first career pole position after a safety car start, but dropped behind Mercedes' race winner Lewis Hamilton after changing from full wet tyres to intermediates.
Hamilton stayed out until lap 31, when he pitted for a set of slick ultrasofts that lasted to the finish.
Ricciardo came in for supersoft tyres on the following lap but his hopes of getting out ahead of the Briton were dashed when Red Bull were not ready for the change.
“I didn't make the call. I got called. They should have been ready. It hurts. I don't have anything else to say to be honest,” said Ricciardo, who led in Spain two weeks ago before a strategy change handed victory to his teenage team-mate Max Verstappen.
“We pulled away, pitted for inters and we put ourselves in a race with Lewis, which we didn't need to be in. And then the pit stop was the pit stop,” he said.
“I felt that I was the quickest in all conditions but, again, second place doesn't show much for it...two races in a row, two races in a row. That's all I can say.”
Red Bull boss responds
Red Bull principal Christian Horner explained that the cramped conditions of the Monaco garages had led to a misunderstanding, with the pit wall on a different level and little space to store sets of tyres.
“There was a scramble with the mechanics, originally having the soft tyres ready,” he said. “When the change was requested to go to the supersoft, those tyres were actually right at the back of the garage.”
Horner said Ricciardo had done everything right and apologised for letting him down. The Australian, however, needed some convincing.
“I'm not sure where to go from here, what to do,” he said. “Obviously, they've got to understand what's going on and learn from it but this win I'll never get back, that's a fact.”
Reuters
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our Newsletter