Raging Daniel Ricciardo blamed “immaturity” for Yuki Tsunoda’s cooldown overtake
"Immaturity" blamed by Daniel Ricciardo for Yuki Tsunoda's overtake on the cooldown lap at F1 Bahrain Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo hit out at teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s “immaturity” after a stunning late incident between them at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Tsunoda, apparently irritated by the RB team’s instructions late in the race, overtook Ricciardo on the cooldown lap.
Tsunoda dived down the inside of Turn 8 to leave the usually-chilled Ricciardo with a temper.
“What the f***,” Ricciardo fumed on his team radio.
“I’ll save it. He’s a f****** helmet.”
Ricciardo was later questioned about the bizarre incident.
“I don’t know,” he replied, baffled.
“I came on the radio and was trying to stay cool. A bit of immaturity, let’s say that.
“I’m being very sensible right now, but let’s call it immaturity.
“He’s obviously frustrated with the team orders call.
“But let’s be real, this is something we talked about before the race. It was very likely I was going to use a soft at the end of the race.
“So he knew that there was a chance that I would have a pace advantage at the end and if he gets the call, then it’s going to happen.
“He’s not giving me points, we’re fighting for 13th, so at least give us the best chance to get at least one car in the points.”
The RBs entered the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix with rival team bosses criticising their relationship with Red Bull.
But the hype around the rebranded team faded after a below-par qualifying session, before Ricciardo finished 13th and Tsunoda 14th in the grand prix.
The subplot behind their season is the potential vacancy in 2025 at Red Bull, should they dispense with Sergio Perez.
The incident at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix represented the first significant clash between Ricciardo and Tsunoda since they became teammates midway through last year.
Ricciardo reflected: “It’s a long year and we need to make sure we’re all good, so we’ll go back, have a meeting and be very mature about it, and look forward to Jeddah.”
F1 returns next weekend in Saudi Arabia.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
