Ricciardo came together with Alex Albon as the pair approached Turn 3 on the opening lap.

The Australian drifted right to open up the approaching left-hander while battling Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin to his left.

With a better exit from Turn 2, Albon drove into the gap to the right of Ricciardo’s RB in what officials deemed a racing incident.

It was an awkward time for the incident to occur with Ricciardo under increasing pressure to retain his drive after a slow start to 2024.

But the eight-time grand prix winner is adamant there has been no internal backlash and that, if anything, a crash was inevitable at some point this season.

“It’s just one of those things,” Ricciardo admitted.

“Yeah, you look how the season’s gone and it’s like ‘oh, that’s a bit of another hit’, so to speak.

“But I was very clear to the team, and especially my team after that weekend, even Sunday night, I was like ‘guys, today was a one-off incident. It’s going to happen, there’s 24 races’.

“You never want to go into a season thinking like ‘oh yeah, I’m going to have a crash this year’, but with the amount of driving we’re doing, it is highly likely that it’s inevitable.

“And as simple as that – it was just one of those race-start incidents.

“I don’t think it was a build-up of anything that’s obviously happening so far this year with my results.”

RB has swapped Ricciardo into its newly completed spare chassis for the coming weekend.

It was a planned move in most respects and not aimed at solving a particular issue.

“We haven’t found anything wrong with what I had but sometimes these things might be visible, might not,” he reasoned.

“Maybe it’s just to clear my mind and have it.

“Even if I had my old chassis, it doesn’t change my approach into the weekend, I still think I can make something happen,” he added.

“I’m sure deep down that will help in one-way, shape, or form.”

Chassis swaps are not uncommon, with all teams rotating drivers through their fleet of tubs during the course of the year, it’s simply not publicised.

Hence Ricciardo’s change is nothing out of the ordinary, but it is an opportunity to change another variable.

“I’ve been quite vocal about it because I’ve been obviously struggling a bit this year,” Ricciardo noted.

“But I think also to be clear that it was always the plan to have to introduce that chassis here.

“I don’t know if anyone else has yet but by race five, it was [always planned to introduce the third car in China].

“I was obviously just putting my hand up; whenever it’s ready, I’ll take it.

“And Yuki [Tsunoda] is happy with his [chassis] so that’s that.

“It’s one little box just to tick now and make sure that we’re all okay and peace of mind.”

On-track action in China begins with opening practice at 13:30 AEST today ahead of Sprint Qualifying at 17:30.