Lewis Hamilton finally won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday, putting one of F1’s most iconic figures on the top step of the podium. It was the seven-time champion’s first victory since the penultimate race of the 2021 F1 season.
But another game-changer in the sport finished 13th, leaving many to wonder what went wrong.
After being on the back foot for most of the week at Silverstone, Daniel Ricciardo finished outside the points in Sunday’s British Grand Prix. After the race, the Australian driver, and one of the most popular figures in F1, was left pondering what on earth had happened.
“It was an exciting race in mixed conditions. We had our chances at the end but unfortunately we weren’t competitive,” Ricciardo said in the team’s post-race report. “It was a tougher day than we expected so we’ll try our best and find out why. I think we’ve lost a bit in the latest upgrade battle compared to our midfield rivals over the last three weeks and we need to work a bit harder for the next race.”
“It’s good that we now have a week off to allow us all to reset and come back to Budapest, which is a totally different circuit.”
Speaking to Lawrence Barrett on live TV after the race, Ricciardo detailed how the car felt and highlighted how the RB01 simply lacked pace at Silverstone this week.
“I felt like we struggled a lot more than we expected,” Ricciardo said. “We know that this circuit is not necessarily a competitive one for us, but [relatively speaking] We struggled even more. [So we’ll] Understand that and try to understand why it happened.”
Looking ahead to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ricciardo revealed that the team needs to “fix some weaknesses” before the grid is up and running again in Budapest.
“I think we’ve lost a bit in the upgrade battle recently compared to our midfield rivals,” Ricciardo said. “Budapest was [a] It’s a completely different circuit. Let’s take a look.
“But, yeah, it’s not enough to think, ‘That track suits us, so it’s OK.’
“Obviously I had to fix some weaknesses and I’ll look back at my races and see where I was lacking in pace, but there were times when I was about eight tenths a lap behind and it just didn’t feel like it was there.
“So, yeah, there was just one day like that.”
And so Ricciardo finished the race, leaving him to wonder where he and the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team could find those crucial 0.8 seconds.
