Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have apologised to the Red Bull team following their costly clash in the closing stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Red Bull duo had been locked in a tense race long battle which boiled over on Lap 40 when Ricciardo made contact with the rear of Verstappen while attempting to pass his team-mate for fourth at Turn 1.
Contact between the pair ruled both cars out of the race costing the squad valuable points, while the incident triggered a crazy end to the race, which was won by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
Ricciardo and Verstappen showed their remorse following the clash that arrived after the pair had touched twice in earlier dices for position.
“We’re not into each other right now, it’s more just about saying sorry to the team, just apologise the best way we can,” said Ricciardo, when asked by Sky Sports F1 about his relationship with Verstappen.
“We don’t want to be in that situation. (I’m) just down I guess, for the situation. (I’m) thankful that we’re allowed to race, especially, myself and Max, we love to race. That’s cool.
“We did get close already in the race a few times, touching, sometimes we were on the limit.
“Unfortunately it’s ended how it did. It’s not a nice situation.
“We both feel pretty bad that it ended like that, and for the team it’s pretty crappy.”
The Chinese Grand Prix winner said he was committed to the move when he recalled the incident.
“I thought the gap was on the inside, and once I was there I had to commit to that,” he added.
“But yeah, it’s just, let’s say, heartbroken for how the team must feel right now.”
The two drivers spoke to each other immediately after the incident before a debrief with the team where they were reminded of the expected code of conduct in races.
Verstappen was equally disappointed by the outcome of the clash and hopes the incident will not affect the team’s mantra of letting its drivers race each other in the future.
“It’s just really disappointing for the team, we lost a lot of points today, unnecessarily,” said Verstappen.
“I don’t think we need to speak about whose fault (it is) because at the end of the day we are racing for a team, we are representing a lot of people and when this happens it’s not good for both of us.
“Before that, it was hard racing but fair, we gave each other space, of course we had a little brush with the wheels, but in racing that can happen.
“As racing drivers you go for every inch, of course you’re not happy when you collide as team-mates, but we are very fair to each other, so we spoke immediately after the race.
“I don’t think letting us not race anymore is the way forward, but we will talk about it and see what happens.”
Discussion about this post