Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda held ‘clear the air’ talks to resolve Bahrain drama

Daniel Ricciardo says he and RB F1 teammate Yuki Tsunoda have cleared the air after a post-race near-miss at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

After the Bahrain race had finished, Tsunoda made a point of re-passing teammate Ricciardo, before driving close to him during their respective cool-down lap to the pits.

Tsunoda had been unhappy at RB’s team order to swap positions in the race, something Ricciardo had suggested. The Australian accused Tsunoda of “immaturity” with the risky manoeuvre when he spoke to media after the race.

However, coming into this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ricciardo revealed the pair had sat down with each other to discuss the incident privately, and agreed to move on.

“I obviously said a few things on the radio and I obviously know that everything gets broadcast, so someone is going to pick it up, so I said a few things but I also tried to save it for the briefing as well,” Ricciardo told Sky.

“I also know as soon as you put the helmet on and also at the end of a race, yeah there’s some frustrations, you are also a bit exhausted. So you can maybe do things which are maybe a little bit out of character, so I try to take these things into account as well.

“But also, it was something for us afterwards. I think enough got put out there to the public but it was important that we spoke after the race. After our technical briefing we then had a private briefing and just cleared the air.

“That was important for Yuki and I to do it and also for the team to know we’re not going to have problems moving forward. It’s race one and I think that’s what we needed to do, and leave that room and be like ‘alright, it’s done’, Saudi here we come.”

Asked if he feels like he can trust Tsunoda moving forward, Ricciardo replied: “Yeah we have to and that’s why I think if we just kind of let it go, maybe there’s still these questions or doubts.

“That’s why I think it was so important for us to, once the helmet was off and we got out of our race suit, we sat in the room and we talked very openly together.

“So moving forward there is trust. I think also, there’s a lot, probably with the in-lap - that was that, but the race situation, these things happen. It’s not the first time there’s been a bit of a delay with a driver swap.

“We do have new people on the pit wall and everything. It was also something that can happen in race one. So I wanted to try and take that into account. We’re not perfect yet.

“So all these little things make us come here with no issues.”