Daniel Ricciardo revealed Red Bull have made changes to their pit stop and strategy procedures after he questioned two decisions which potentially cost him victory in Monaco.
While much attention focused on Ricciardo’s disastrous second pit stop in Monaco, when the team did not have a set of tyres ready for him, the Red Bull driver also wanted answers over their decision to pit earlier in the race.
“Everyone highlighted the second pit stop, which was where effectively we lost the race,” said Ricciardo in today’s FIA press conference, “but I questioned the first pit stop as well because that was the one already when I came out behind Lewis I was like, ‘we’ve put ourselves in a race know with Lewis which we didn’t have to be in’.”
“I just wanted to make sure the first pit stop was being addressed as heavily as the second one.”
Ricciardo said his race engineer Simon Rennie acknowledged the team had also made a mistake with his first pit stop. Red Bull have made changes to prevent similar errors happening again.
“There’s going to be some new software that’s put in for strategy now and some live stuff during the race that can obviously make us more prepared and if there are some late calls again, to make sure everything’s put in place.”
“I had plenty of questions to ask but they answered them with confidence and that’s all I needed to hear,” he added.
Ricciardo confirmed the delay during his second pit stop was caused because the team made a late call to put a different set of tyres on his car after seeing Lewis Hamilton’s pit stop. The cramped Monaco garages made it difficult for his crew to swap the tyres.
“I think the nature of the pits and everything in Monaco does make it harder to move around,” said Ricciardo. “Whether it would have been a different story at another track I’m not sure.”
“I think it came down to a late call, a late change of heart. Basically after the team saw what tyres Lewis had put on they decided to change the decision. We were always intending on using one compound and once they saw Lewis go to the ultra-sort, which I think the team probably expected him to use the ultra-soft, then it got them thinking and it was all a bit last-minute.”
“Whether a last-minute call at Barcelona would have allowed that to happened more fluently I’m not sure. I think the call was just a bit rushed and with Monaco being what it is it was probably a bit chaotic for the circumstances. It probably all added up: the small garage, the intensity of the whole weekend and that track and what it does probably didn’t help.”
Ricciardo’s frustrating four races
“For myself as well I think it probably wasn’t healthy to just address it straight away,” said Ricciardo. “For a few days I was upset and obviously ruing some missed opportunities.”
“But it’s one of those things, it happens. It’s unfortunate it happens back-to-back that expanded the feelings and the emotion a lot more. But I’ve moved on. I’ve still obviously got a lot of faith in the team and I don’t doubt things with them moving forwards.”
“For me it’s obviously really important to execute a perfect weekend from my side and the team’s side and get back on-track. We’ve got a good car, we’ve got good material, just try and really maximise it. ”
“The last four weeks I’ve left Sunday feeling like I should have got more. This weekend it’s really just to try and leave Sunday knowing that we’ve maximised everything from both sides.”
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chris (@)
9th June 2016, 19:07
Would be interesting to know what changes other teams have made in response to RB’s last min tyre mistake.
Daniel Chico (@daniel-chico)
9th June 2016, 20:13
In my opinion the first stop wasn’t so much a strategy error by RB as it was a tactical success by Mercedes and Hamilton.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
9th June 2016, 21:10
@daniel-chico How? How did Mercedes in any way influence the stop of Red Bull?
Daniel Chico (@daniel-chico)
9th June 2016, 21:48
Sorry, my english is lacking. Mercedes didn’t influence RB pit stop, any more than usual (perhaps it was my use of “tactical” that made you, @xtwl, believe I said that?). What I meant to say was that I believe there was nothing wrong at that moment, without hindsight, in pitting for inters. I think it’s unfair to say that RB made a mistake. On the other side, Mercedes trust in Hamilton’s confidence to keep running with wets at the time is laudable.
Pete
9th June 2016, 23:36
It was a mistake in that Ricciardos pace on wets was decent enough against the intermediate drivers and Lewis, so pitting him for intermediates lost him track position where Monaco it is king which meant that now they had to cover Lewis now they were behind him. If Ricciardo stayed out and continued maintaining the gap to Lewis and the whole field behind they can easily see what happens and react accordingly with plenty of time to spare.
It was the wrong move, which ended up being a 2nd botched pitstop and the win when it could have been an even easier win without having to think about the whole field including Lewis.
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
10th June 2016, 2:53
@daniel-chico –
Here is exactly how Mercedes, and Lewis influenced Red Bull’s pit strategy decisions. In Ricciardo’s own words, no less.
——————————————
“I think it came down to a late call, a late change of heart. Basically after the team saw what tyres Lewis had put on they decided to change the decision. We were always intending on using one compound and once they saw Lewis go to the ultra-sort, which I think the team probably expected him to use the ultra-soft, then it got them thinking and it was all a bit last-minute.”
smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
9th June 2016, 20:40
I really like this guy wears his heart on his sleeve and searingly honest.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
9th June 2016, 21:32
So basically, Lewis piling on the pressure, driving an awesome stint pushed Red Bull into making mistakes.
That’s how it’s done champ!
Daniel drove fantastic all weekend – yet Lewis, with nearly everything working for once (Saturday Q3 splutter) won the race.
Sir Mon
9th June 2016, 23:13
And yet it’s like HAM was so lagging so badly that RB pitwall was tempted to finesse and go for the ‘safer’ option of the matching softest compound.
Palle (@palle)
9th June 2016, 21:38
When You are in front in Monaco, You don’t need to react very much to others strategy choices, its just important to keep in front. The speed difference between Rosberg and Hamilton showed that if Ricciardo was on this or that tyre in the last stint didn’t matter much, what mattered was to get him out in front of Lewis again. Another lesson of keeping focus on the right stuff, and not let the opposition lure them into mistakes and strange last minute changes for no reason. We have seen it before, Ferrari losing Alonso’s championship to Vettel because they focussed more on the strategy of another Aussie driver as one example.
AD (@ad)
12th June 2016, 5:42
Yep, exactly. Red Bull need to be prepared better. They should have been ready for every possibility when Hamilton stopped – ‘Oh, he’s going into Ultra Softs? No problem, we planned for this already and know exactly what to do because we considered this situation last lap. We now have a full lap to prepare.’
Wihan (@wihan)
10th June 2016, 0:03
RIC made like 8 seconds on HAM in he’s in lap, yeah sure HAM piling on the pressure there
audifan
10th June 2016, 12:05
maybe because ric was on the best tyres for the conditions rather than cold slicks?