RB should have started on mediums or even softs and assumed there would be a safety car.
Then they could have pushed up and pitted for new tires with everyone else. Starting on the hard tires would have been a good strategy on a different track, but the hosts were saying on the preshow that there's been a safety in every previous race.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and if there had not been a safety, it may have been one of the greatest wins ever for RB that we'd all be gobsmacked about for years, so who knows.