'Immaturity': Ricciardo Hits Out At Tsunoda After Cooldown Lap Incident

Sunday, 03 March 2024 at 10:30

Daniel Ricciardo reacted to the incident between him and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda during the cooldown lap after the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix race.

Yuki Tsunoda almost crashed into the Honey Badger during the cooldown lap as he divebombed him on purpose, going into turn number eight.

The collision was closely avoided by both, and then, coming out of turn eight and approaching turn number nine, Tsunoda again swept past Ricciardo at a dangerously close distance.

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The Australian driver then went onto the team radio and said: "What the f**k?! I'll save it. He is a f*****g helmet!" After the race, he told F1 TV's Post-Race Show:

"I don't know. I came on the radio and was trying to stay cool. A bit of immaturity? I'm being very sensible right now, but let's call it immaturity."

The Japanese driver was ordered to let his teammate pass him a few laps before the end of the race, which was a decision he disagreed with. Ricciardo continued:

"[Yuki's] obviously frustrated with the team orders call, but let's be real, this is something we talk about before the race. It was very likely I was going to use the 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 a call, it's going to happen."

The 23-year-old initially didn't let his older teammate through. He waited one lap. By the time Ricciardo was able to pass his teammate, they had lost some valuable time.

Asked whether he would have a better chance of passing Kevin Magnussen in front if he had been given the position by his teammate earlier, Ricciardo added:

"I think we had a better chance, for sure,” replied Ricciardo. “Because also with the soft [tyre]… lap by lap it slowly gets away from you, so you need to use it when you can. The more traffic you’re in, the more it starts to drop away. Every lap counts."