THE motorsports world is united in its belief that the least Red Bull Racing owes Daniel Ricciardo is a solemn apology after their Monaco Grand Prix stuff-up.

But a Formula 1 insider says questions also need to be asked about the Red Bull team’s partying habits.

Ricciardo was fuming after a crucial error by his pit crew saw the Aussie give up the lead to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who maintained first position for the remainder of the race to claim victory and bump Ricciardo to second spot on the podium.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner issued a heartfelt apology to Ricciardo after the race, and said a combination of poor communication and the ramshackle design of the Monaco team garages were to blame.

“We as a team owe Daniel a huge apology today as we failed to support him,” Horner said.

“The garage is downstairs, (and) tyres are on heat both in the garage and behind the garage,” Horner said.

“Unfortunately the set of tyres that were called for weren’t readily to hand and were at the back of the garage.”

Human error is one thing, but veteran F1 broadcaster James Allen went a step further by pointing out that Red Bull put on a rather large party for its crew the night before the race.

“It doesn’t help that Red Bull was party central all weekend,” Allen wrote on his website. “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.”

Ricciardo (L) has some questions to ask of his Red Bull Racing team. Source: Getty Images

Allen went on to raise the pressing question of whether Red Bull’s consecutive blunders at Ricciardo’s expense might force the 26-year-old to contemplate a change of teams.

“Will it push Ricciardo into looking elsewhere, to Ferrari for example?” Allen asked. “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 teammate.

“Ricciardo is world champion material, he will be worried that he might not get a chance to fulfil that potential.”

Allen advised against the move but suggested Ricciardo should read his team “the riot act” this week.

Focusing more on events at the track, The Times’ Kevin Eaton said it was a combination of God, providence and prodigious skill that allowed Hamilton to earn victory in Monaco.

“God did his bit with the weather, the skill was never in doubt but providence was lurking in the Red Bull garage where some of the most highly-trained and respected mechanics in world motor racing were about to be transformed into Keystone Cops,” Eaton wrote.

He felt Ricciardo’s pain but suggested the Australian driver will have plenty more opportunities for Grand Prix victories in the future.

“The biggest disappointment … was reserved for Ricciardo,” Eaton wrote. “He arrived at his garage for his second and final stop to discover his mechanics running around like ‘headless chooks’ — that’s Australian for chicken to you.

“Ricciardo was also bitter about Spain, where he was outdone by Verstappen because his team put him on a three-stop strategy that cost him dearly. Screwed twice, he grumbled. But this was worse: Ricciardo lost 10 seconds to Hamilton, the lead … and the Monaco Grand Prix.

“Again and again, Ricciardo, who has confirmed that he is a talent as precocious as any in F1 today, launched his thrusts on Hamilton only to be repelled.”

Writing for Motorsport.com, Charles Bradley didn’t mince his words in describing the Red Bull blunder.

“Lewis Hamilton won the Monaco Grand Prix, but had to thank rivals Red Bull for handing him the opportunity as Daniel Ricciardo suffered a pit stop nightmare that cost him dearly,” Bradley wrote.

“The combination of a strategy gamble to stay on wet tyres long enough to switch straight to slicks, coupled with a disastrous moment in the pits for Ricciardo, handed Mercedes’ reigning world champion Hamilton his first win since Austin 2015.”

Predictably much of the race coverage in the UK focused on Hamilton’s come-from-behind victory rather than the fact it was gifted to him by Red Bull.

Ricciardo cut a sullen figure on the podium after the Monaco Grand Prix. Source: Getty Images

The BBC’s Andrew Benson went as far as comparing Hamilton’s driving to that of the late Ayrton Senna.

“It was a masterclass of defensive driving that at times recalled McLaren’s Ayrton Senna holding off the faster Williams of Nigel Mansell in the closing stages of this race in 1992, a battle that has gone down in Formula 1 folklore,” Benson wrote.

“The lead ebbed and flowed throughout the rest of the race but Hamilton did just enough, eking out his tyre life, to hold on for his 44th career victory, and undoubtedly one of his greatest.”

Hamilton himself told Sky Sports that it did indeed feel like “the best race ever”.

“I’ve had a lot of races so it’s difficult to recall all of them, but this one I feel in my heart that I earned it.

“It didn’t feel like a stroke of luck or anything like that, I really worked every inch of the track that I could use and ounce of grip that I had.

“I used every tool and skill that I had in order to stay ahead of Daniel and slog that car round as fast as I could.”

The emotion and drama of it all had the Daily Mail’s Jonathan McEvoy searching for adjectives to describe how entertained he was by events at the famous Circuit de Monaco.

“A sense of theatre has attended the world champion all his career,” McEvoy wrote. “The biggest stages and the deepest setbacks have often provided the backdrops to his rise to glory. And this performance of nerveless precision stood comparison with his best.

“This was the most pulsating Monaco Grand Prix of recent memory — a wet-dry-wet saga of strategic conundrums and a fierce fight by two brave and brilliant drivers, Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo, who would have won but for a pit stop error by his Red Bull team.”