'Wasn’t Really Close': Tsunoda Asserts After Nearly Crashing Into Ricciardo On Cooldown Lap

Monday, 04 March 2024 at 01:30

Yuki Tsunoda shortly commented on the incident between him and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the cooldown lap of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.

RB F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda finished the race around the Bahrain International Circuit behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo due to a team order he received a few laps before the end of the race.

The Japanese driver fought with Kevin Magnussen for the P12, but when Daniel Ricciardo caught up with them on the soft compound tire, the RB team ordered Tsunoda to let Ricciardo through. Asked about the orders from his team, the 23-year-old told the media:

“"To be honest, I don't know. He was outside of the points, I was just about to overtake Magnussen. I was side by side on the main straight and got a driver swap [message] in the last few laps."”

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Tsunoda disagreed with the order from his team, which he made clear by initially not letting his teammate pass for one lap. The problem was that when he did let Ricciardo through, Max Verstappen caught up with them.

The Red Bull Racing driver was a lap ahead, and they had to get out of his way without impeding. This lost both RB drivers time in comparison to Magnussen. After that, Ricciardo couldn't overtake the Haas driver until the end of the race.

Usually, if drivers' positions are swapped and there is no further progress, the positions are reversed back before the finish line. But this wasn't the case here. Ricciardo did not return the position to his teammate, which probably upset the Japanese driver even more. He said:

“"To be honest, I don't understand what the team's thoughts. I was also [within a] second, I was just overtaking Magnussen. And he also didn't overtake Magnussen, so I have to review what [the team's] thoughts were, to be honest. I don't really understand."”

Tsunoda then sent a message to his team and Ricciardo when he divebombed his 34-year-old teammate on the cooldown lap. On camera, it looked like the two drivers nearly collided. But the 23-year-old saw the incident differently. He added: