Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo notched his third points-paying finish of the 2013 World Championship with an eighth-place run on Sunday at the British Grand Prix. But the Australian reckons that his four-point haul, his biggest since scoring six points with a seventh-place result at the Chinese Grand Prix, could’ve been bigger.
“Towards the end of the race, I had a very good pace, but I think we might have done better with a different strategy when the last safety car came out as prior to that I could match the Force India and the Ferraris,” Ricciardo said following the race. “At the end, we were on used tires and those who changed for a third time were able to pass me.
“Eighth is a good result, but I see it as a missed opportunity to score more points, because today we were quicker than the Ferraris so to finish behind them – particularly [Felipe] Massa who had a tire problem, is a bit disappointing.”
Ricciardo also had to overcome multiple pit stop issues as well early on. According to the team’s principal, Franz Tost, Ricciardo’s first stop was marred by problems with a wheel that struggled to come off of his car, while his second stop had him lose multiple seconds on the track because of a delayed release due to another car coming in.
Still, better that than what happened to teammate Jean Eric-Vergne, who was one of several competitors that suffered tire blowouts during the race. Ricciardo maintained that the tire degradation levels on his STR8 were “normal.”
“I don’t know what was happening with the tires, as I kept seeing people going off the track and there was debris everywhere,” he said. “It was a little bit dangerous and we need to look into it.”
