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Cape Town - Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has apologised to Daniel Ricciardo for a pit stop slip up in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix which cost him the win.
The Australian was leading comfortably for the first stint of the race in wet conditions before pitting for intermediate tyres, coming back in behind Lewis Hamilton. Ricciardo caught the Mercedes, with Hamilton pitting one lap earlier for slicks as the track dried.
On Lap 32, Ricciardo came into the pits but his tyres were not ready and he lost out to Hamilton on the pit exit.
Despite putting pressure on the reigning World Champion, he failed to pass as the Briton hung on to victory.
“We as a team owe Daniel a huge apology today as we failed to support him. The delay cost him the lead,” Horner said.
Ricciardo was visibly angry with the mistake, telling his team to “save it” as they tried to apologise on the team radio.
Speaking after the race, Ricciardo was still furious; “Two weekends in a row now I’ve been screwed. It sucks. It hurts.”
Horner conceded he had let his driver down again, failing to do him justice after showing superb form throughout the weekend.
“It’s a communication error that has happened at short notice, with 30 seconds notice, that on a normal working day would have been no issue at all,” he said.
He also cited the working space in the team garages as hampering Red Bull’s efforts; “I’m not making excuses because there are none. It’s very tight to have extreme wets, intermediates and three different types of slicks for both cars in the garage at one time.”
With Red Bull in third place in the Constructors standings, 76 points behind Mercedes, and with Ricciardo 40 points back on leader Nico Rosberg, the Milton Keynes outfit will hope for better luck when they arrive in Montreal in a fortnight’s time for the Canadian Grand Prix.
