Daniel Ricciardo has played down any criticism towards Red Bull over their decision-making after he could only manage 12th on the grid for the Hungarian GP.
Normally, wet conditions would be considered the perfect opportunity for the Anglo-Austrian team to compete against Mercedes and Ferrari on a level playing field, instead, both the Australian and teammate Max Verstappen would struggle.
Ricciardo’s problems began with a nervy Q1 as a decision to use Soft tyres when the track dried out compared to the rest on Ultras left him having to improve on every lap simply to make it through.
“The strategy, we took a risk in Q1 using the soft. I think in hindsight we should have gone on the ultra and just be safe. That was too close,” he admitted.
“But we did have a Soft to use for Q1 in dry conditions, that was always the plan. It’s not like it was against the plan but it was closer than we wanted it to be.”
Scrambling through in P12, his luck would run out in Q2.
“In Q2, the rain came. So the first guy on track was getting the best track, and it just got worse and worse, so not only to be further in the pack but also you needed to get that first lap in,” he explained.
“Stroll spun in front of me so I had to abort that lap, and then the following lap was too wet for the inter.
“The last sector was just trying to survive, so we had to put the extreme on but the track was nowhere near what it was in the beginning.”
The end result is the 29-year-old having to fight back through the field for the second weekend in a row but on a circuit where overtaking is much more difficult.
“Tomorrow I have a fight on my hands, starting 12th, that’s going to be interesting,” he smiled.
“I’ll sleep tonight, I’ll come tomorrow fired up and pull off some clean moves. If not, then I’ll use a few guys as my brakes!”
