Ricciardo believes Renault "missed a big opportunity" after safety car pit stop
F1 News
Daniel Ricciardo added two more points to his Renault account in Monaco, but he insists the team "missed a very big opportunity" to finish in P5. The Australian believes it was wrong to pit during the safety car.
Ricciardo, who won the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, started in sixth. He managed to negotiate Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap to get into fifth. However, Renault turned down track position and pitted their new driver when the safety car came out.
“I got out of Turn 1 in fifth and I was smiling and the team gave me a bit of love after that,” Ricciardo told the Formula 1 website.
“Then we got a late call on the Safety Car to box, and to be honest as soon as we came in, my gut feeling was that it wasn’t the right call, because the tyres were fine and we had the pace.
“Here it’s all about track position and giving up so much so early just felt wrong. So, disappointing. We missed a very big opportunity today to get a fifth, at the very worst a sixth. So yeah, sit down with the guys now and understand it, but yeah, certainly frustrated… We could have had a real big result today.”
His teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, experienced similar frustrations. He played a part in Charles Leclerc's woes as the Ferrari driver collided with Hulkenberg during his charge through the field. Renault still sits 8th in the constructors' championship, just one point ahead of Alfa Romeo.