Red Bull F1 team justified Spanish GP tactics - Daniel Ricciardo

The Australian appeared on course for victory at Barcelona after Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided.

But Red Bull used Ricciardo to counter Sebastian Vettel's three-stop strategy, while Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen did a two-stopper that gave them superior track position.

Verstappen went on to win while Ricciardo finished fourth for the fourth time in five races and questioned his team's logic afterwards.

In Monaco on Wednesday he said he now understood and accepted Red Bull's thinking.

"Sure I was disappointed - the outcome sucked to have a [likely] win and then not even be on the podium from a potential victory," Ricciardo said.

"I spoke a lot with the team and had a lot of explanations, the reasons why we pitted, and basically at the time it seemed like the three-stop was the best thing to do.

"And at the time they thought Seb was our biggest challenger for the victory, so with me they tried to cover him.

"It didn't fall in my favour and that obviously sucked but there was no other agenda behind it.

"Even though I was massively frustrated with the outcome of Barcelona, I never thought anything 'suss'.

"Deep down I knew it was all with the right intentions and it just didn't work."

Asked for his response to casual fans pointing out he was beaten by the 'new guy' in Spain, Ricciardo brushed it off and maintained he has belief in his own ability.

"What fans are saying or the media are saying, I don't let it control me," he said.

"Even if the strategy had not worked for Max, he still did a really good race and even if we all had a three-stop he still would have got a podium in his first race with the team.

"He had already done a really good weekend and shown that he had adapted really quickly so I wouldn't take anything away from Max.

"Obviously what he has done has been great and to then win and make the tyres last was really good.

"There are still many races to go and many more opportunities hopefully for us to get on the podium and fight for wins.

"But I still believe a lot in my ability."