Red Bull Racing came away from Monaco with fourth and fifth places for Dany Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo respectively after an unusual strategy choice.
Ricciardo was able to pit for new tires during the safety car period, and after the restart the team told Kvyat to let him past so he could try to chase the Hamilton/Vettel battle. However, when by the end he was unable to gain any places, the Australian stuck to an agreement and at the last minute handed the place back to Kvyat, who had passed him at the start.
“Basically once Perez stopped that opened up a window for us to have a free stop with Daniel Ricciardo,” said Christian Horner. “Where we didn't have that opportunity with Kvyat, so we saw the opportunity with Ricciardo to put him on the super softs, give him a crack at Kimi, brave move at the top of the hill to get down the inside and thankfully the stewards thought it was also fair.
“We spoke to both the drivers and said we were going to do the switch on the understanding that if Ricciardo doesn't make any progress, then we will put it back. From the team's point of view it was our best chance of getting a podium, so the drivers played fairly and it was good teamwork. Ricciardo gave the place back on the last couple of corners, you could not ask for a better display of teamwork than that today.”
Horner emphasizes that Renault's weaknesses were less obvious in Monaco: “Obviously this track is the least power sensitive of all the tracks on the calendar. We have managed to optimize what we have got. Renault have done a good job getting the best out of their current package and we have got the best out of the chassis and drivers, and fourth and fifth with two Mercedes and a Ferrari ahead – we beat a Ferrari fair and square today is as good as we could have really hoped for.
“I think the fact we got through this race without any issues at all is a step in the right direction. We now have to evaluate what happens in Montreal – whether we take a penalty there or not. It really depends on the state of these engines after this race. It is not hard on the engines around here and I think that it is something we will have to evaluate this week.”
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