What next for Daniel Ricciardo after team costs him a second Formula 1 victory?

Daniel Ricciardo scored his first podium of the season and his best result in Monaco, but it was scant consolation for another race victory that had slipped through his fingers when he had the race under control.

He was blunt, saying that he'd been 'screwed' for a second race in succession and there is no question that in Monaco, as in Spain, Ricciardo was controlling the race, when the team again decided to make the first move against a competitor and it ended up costing him the win.

In Spain, he was switched to a three stop strategy; being first mover turned out to be a disadvantage. In Monaco he had an 11 second lead over Lewis Hamilton and 43 seconds margin over Nico Rosberg in third place. So there was no pressure from behind Hamilton, a large gap to play with and no need to move first onto Intermediate tyres, which gave Hamilton track position. At Monaco that is the one thing you never give up lightly.

As soon as Red Bull made that move and zigged, it allowed Mercedes and Hamilton the chance to zag and stay out on the wet tyres until the track was ready for slicks. This was a bold move as no-one had any real experience of these new Pirelli wet tyres, so staying out was a step into the unknown. But a combination of Hamilton's feel for the tyres and Mercedes working out the maths on how far he needed to go to make the finish on the UltraSoft tyre, meant that they could stop Hamilton once only.

At this point, the race was not lost for Ricciardo. Hamilton's out lap on the slicks wasn't particularly fast, so Ricciardo would have retained the lead with around eight seconds advantage if his stop had gone according to plan.

But it didn't; as team boss Christian Horner explained: "We saw Hamilton the lap earlier go onto the ultra-soft tyre, which we felt was quite marginal to go to the end of the race," he said.

"So we elected to put Daniel onto one step harder tyre (SuperSoft). Basically there was a miscommunication as to what tyres were in the garage at what time.

"The pitwall is upstairs, obviously the garage is downstairs, tyres are on heat both in the garage and behind the garage. Unfortunately the set of tyres that were called for weren't readily to hand and were at the back of the garage.

"There was a scramble, with the mechanics originally having the soft tyre ready."

Ricciardo didn't mince his words, "Two weekends in a row I’ve been screwed now," he lamented. "We were quick in the wet, we had a comfortable lead, pitted for inters, got stuck behind Lewis and we just effectively put ourselves in a race we didn’t need to be into.

"Then I got called into the pits for the slicks and the tyres weren’t ready. I didn’t make the call. I didn't make the late call. I got to the pits and everyone’s running around like headless chooks (Australian slang for chickens).

"Massively, massively disappointed. I don’t like being up here being miserable, because I got a podium in Formula One, so it should be a good day, but when it happens two weekends in a row it’s hard to take."

So where does Ricciardo go from here?

Clearly the team owe him a massive apology, as Horner has spelled out clearly this evening.

Looking back at the Spanish GP episode, the team would argue that when Vettel closed up in the second stint, they needed Ricciardo to be quicker and risked losing the race, so opted to switch him. He would argue that the team would have easily won the race if they'd asked Verstappen to sit three seconds behind him and cover the undercut risk from Vettel.

But this one was clear cut and, all the more costly, as Ricciardo pointed out; "It’s not like we’re in Mercedes’ position, we’re not able to win a race, so to have an opportunity to lead two races in a row and especially here in Monaco.

"I think I took Barcelona on the chin and then took it well but two in a row now…"

A tyre mix-up can happen to anyone; it happened to the Mercedes' personnel a few seasons ago when the team was badged Honda and other teams like Williams can remember a painful experience like this. But coming on the back of Barcelona and when Ricciardo had taken care to do all the right things to put himself in a winning position, it's not acceptable.

It doesn't help that Red Bull was party central all weekend. Hosting parties in Monaco goes back to the days when Red Bull were building up their competence and their parties were better than their on track performances.

But after four world championships and over 50 Grand Prix victories they are a top team and, while it's great to invite team members and sponsors to dance to an international DJ the night before the race, if you then go out the next day and fail to get the basics right then it's fair enough for the driver to ask some serious questions.

Will it push Ricciardo into looking elsewhere, to Ferrari for example? Perhaps, but given the choice most seasoned F1 observers would probably advise him to stick where he is, albeit with some apprehension about how it might work long-term with Verstappen as his team-mate. Ricciardo is world champion material, he will be worried that he might not get a chance to fulfil that potential.

The new 2017 rules with more emphasis on aerodynamics, a Red Bull strength, and an improved Renault engine, should give him a chance to have a crack at it while Verstappen is still maturing as a driver.

Ricciardo should keep the faith - but having read the riot act behind the scenes after this episode.