Daniel Ricciardo shares why Hungarian GP was ‘one of the worst’ F1 races of his career

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RB driver Daniel Ricciardo is in arguably the most unique position on the Formula 1 grid right now.

Daniel Ricciardo is the only driver in the Red Bull quartet that doesn’t have a contract for 2025.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda is already signed up, while Max Verstappen can stay with the senior Red Bull team for as long as he wants but is technically on a deal that expires at the end of 2028.

However, since Sergio Perez extended his deal with Red Bull, his form has been incredibly worrying.

So, despite not being safe as RB, Daniel Ricciardo could earn a Red Bull promotion during the summer break should Perez’s time with the team come to an end.

There’s also the prospect of Ricciardo being dropped entirely by RB at the end of the season which means every session counts for the experienced Australian.

So, speaking to F1TV in the media pen after the race, it’s easy to understand why Ricciardo was so frustrated with how his race panned out.

Ricciardo started the race in the top ten, but an early strategy error made life very difficult for the eight-time race winner.

While Tsunoda nailed a fantastic one-stop strategy, Ricciardo was forced to try and fight through the pack on a circuit that’s incredibly difficult to overtake on.

He made his feelings known at the end of the Grand Prix and his team principal Laurent Mekies sympathised with his struggles at such a pivotal point in the season and potentially his career.

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Daniel Ricciardo says Hungarian GP strategy was ‘one of the worst’ of his Formula 1 career

Asked about how the race panned out, Ricciardo said: “That was one of the worst ones [strategy decisions] I’ve had in 250-something races, that was a long old frustrating race where I just had a lot of anger.

“You don’t want to pull in the pits … you get the call, and you know this isn’t the thing to do.

“You get the call late and there’s no time to question it, because then if you miss a lap it’s even worse.

“But as soon as I pulled in, the cars on soft [tyres] had [already] pulled in, we’re on a medium [tyre] so let’s go, let’s use the pace we’ve got – and then we come out in traffic and it’s just a DRS train and, for what? We’re all then on the same tyre.

“I felt like we’d taken ourselves out of the race so early, and then we’re expected to fight a car that’s coming one second a lap quicker on newer tyres. What do you want me to do?

“We just made it so difficult for ourselves when we had pace and we could have just stayed out, clear air, stay calm and do what we’d done all weekend.

“We did a race today, but we didn’t do a race if you know what I mean. We were just driving around.”

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As quoted by the Formula 1 website after the race, Mekies said: “Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points.

“His pace had been extremely strong all weekend long, and he demonstrated that again in the final stint of the race when he was finally able to find some free air and fight his way back.

“We certainly share his frustration, and we will learn and come back stronger next week.”

Daniel Ricciardo will hope RB learn from the mess they created at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Belgium.

Max Verstappen was telling Ricciardo about the Red Bull car before the race and that information might come in handy if he does get handed a promotion during the summer break.

Ricciardo pushed Verstappen harder than any of his other F1 teammates, although he’s not performing at the same level as he was back in 2016 when the Dutchman was first promoted to the team.

Christian Horner delivered his verdict on Sergio Perez’s race after his costly mistake in qualifying on Saturday.

It might all come down to Spa and one of Formula 1’s most historic races could create some modern history of its own.