Daniel Ricciardo’s ‘should have known’ admission with Red Bull ‘b*llocking’ recalled

Daniel Ricciardo has reflected on the calamitous collision between himself and Max Verstappen at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

With Ricciardo finding his position at Red Bull coming under pressure due to Max Verstappen’s talent, a contentious collision between the pair in Baku contributed to Ricciardo’s decision to leave for Renault in 2019.

Daniel Ricciardo: We got an absolute b*llocking!

With Ricciardo and Verstappen close friends away from the racetrack, their time together as teammates at Red Bull had seen a largely amicable relationship slowly turn tense as Verstappen started to realise his potential alongside the more established Ricciardo.

Their low point together was the collision in Baku, with Ricciardo punting Verstappen off the road at Turn 1 following a scrappy back-and-forth between the pair, which resulted in both drivers being hauled off for admonishment by team boss Christian Horner.

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast before confirmation of him losing his seat with VCARB, Ricciardo looked back on that time period with the benefit of hindsight and additional wisdom.

“You never want teammates to clash,” he said.

“Maybe the fans do but the team certainly doesn’t.

“Did we get an absolute bollocking after this? Yes.

“Did we get called to the principal’s office? Yeah, we did. And yeah, we took it.

“Like we’d hit wheels a few times. We should have known that it was starting to escalate and eventually, it did.

“The vocal decibel level in the office afterward – let’s just say Max and I weren’t the only ones who would have heard it!”

While Ricciardo and Verstappen did patch up their differences to re-establish their friendship, Ricciardo said he felt the collision actually resulted in the pair having greater respect for each other.

“I guess the short answer is that, at some point, you have to move on. It happens. Okay, in a way, yes, it shouldn’t happen,” he said, when asked about how they ensured their friendship didn’t sour beyond the point of being salvageable.

“You shouldn’t clash with your teammate. But we both were young and hungry and egos and everything got in the way.

“When you’re battling like that, yeah, it can happen. And it did. So. I don’t know.

“I think we probably came out of it, even though I was a bit ‘Whatever’, at the time – whether it was a month or two later – I think we did come out of it better.

“It was weird, because even though we obviously had the crash, we were super competitive and, yes, there was a rivalry, I think we always respected each other in terms of respecting each other’s talent and what we were trying to bring to the table.

“Maybe the year after, when I’d moved to Renault, naturally, probably some of that tension dissipated because, while we were competing against each other, we weren’t directly so there’s less of this.”

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With Ricciardo deciding to leave Red Bull for a fresh challenge at Renault, the Australian explained how he ensured he didn’t let any resentment build up as the Dutch driver settled into the leadership role at Red Bull which Ricciardo had ostensibly held.

“I guess I just let it go,” he said before being asked what advice he’d given to Lando Norris as he and Verstappen fight for the title while trying to maintain an off-track friendship.

“The only advice I could give is… when I came into the sport, I was like ‘I can’t be friends with anyone. Everyone’s an enemy’,” he said.

“That is the way that you beat them on track. For sure, you need to carry some intensity about the way you strap the helmet on and you don’t see anyone on the track as a friend, they’re all competitors.

“So, yeah, you do have to create some separation but that doesn’t mean you have to hate everyone and drive with animosity.

“I would say it’s fine to have a relationship and be mates and whatever. But I think we all know, that when the helmets are on, it’s business, so to speak.

“You can’t expect just because, Max in this case is a little bit of a friend to Lando, you can’t expect Max just to give him a victory. ”

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