Mekies: In Ricciardo’s case, the team made a mistake

The Visa RB team greatly appreciated the efforts of Yuki Tsunoda, who managed to score points in Hungary despite yesterday’s accident. They also admitted that they had chosen a very unsuccessful tactic with Daniel Ricciardo.

Yuki Tsunoda (9th): “First of all, a big thank you to the mechanics and the whole team, who had to work both during the night and this morning to have time to repair my car for the race. After such a serious accident it was not easy because there were many replacements, but thanks to their efforts we were able to score points today.

I was very relieved when I came back from yesterday’s crash, but I’m especially happy that I was able to work very cleverly with the tyres.

I think this is a very important Grand Prix for us, especially because we were able to finish ahead of our rivals, and this will give everyone a good mood in preparation for the upcoming races.”

Daniel Ricciardo (12th): “The race was long and had only one setback. When the track was clear for me, we couldn’t use the pace that our car is capable of.

We started on medium tyres, but after a few laps we pitted to get a new set of hard tyres, doing this at the same time as several other cars who started on soft tyres, but when we got back on track we found ourselves in traffic.

The results of the day are all the more disappointing because we were fast all weekend and it felt to me that we deprived ourselves of any chance in the race because we couldn’t fight with the cars running on newer tyres.”

Laurent MekiesTeam Manager: “Everyone working at our bases in Faenza and Bicester has worked hard over the last few weeks and thanks to their efforts we have been able to improve. This was confirmed by the fact that both cars reached the final qualifying phase, again ahead of the rest of the mid-pack teams. The points earned today were a reward for all this effort.

Yuki had an incredibly great race, as we were the only ones who decided to do the whole course with a single pit stop, which allowed us to stay ahead of both Aston Martin cars. He worked well with the tires and managed to maintain their performance until the finish. The team also did a great job by fitting Yuki’s car on a new chassis in a short time after yesterday’s accident in the qualifying final.

Unfortunately, in Daniel’s case we made the mistake of making his first pit stop too early, which put him in heavy traffic, ruining his chances of fighting for points. He showed confident pace all weekend and showed it again in the last part of the race, when he was able to make up a few positions. Of course, we are no less angry than he is, and after today’s race we will draw conclusions so that we can perform better next week in Spa.”