Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda have disagreed over the RB Formula 1 team’s decision to impose a driver swap during the closing stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
During the closing embers of the race, Tsunoda was attempting to pass the Haas of Kevin Magnussen for 12th place while Ricciardo was approaching at a rapid rate.
With Tsunoda running on the Hard compound compared to his team-mate on Softs, RB informed the Japanese driver to let Ricciardo through to attack Magnussen.
Tsunoda would oblige with the order but had remonstrated with the team prior to moving aside, quipping to his race engineer on the radio: “Are you kidding me, now?”
Ricciardo was unable to get ahead of Magnussen but retained position to finish as the lead RB, with Tsunoda then jinking towards the Australian on the cooldown lap.
Reflecting on the decision that saw the RB drivers reverse positions, Tsunoda said he couldn’t comprehend the call and wanted internal discussions to be held later.
“I was just about to overtake Magnussen, I was side by side one the main straight and got a driver swap [in the] last few laps,” Tsunoda said.
“To be honest, I didn’t understand what the team thought. So, I have to understand what they were thinking, but so far I don’t understand.
“We have to review what was their thoughts to be honest, I don’t really understand.”
However, Ricciardo has disputed that it would have come as a shock to Tsunoda, citing that such a scenario was raised in RB’s driver briefing ahead of the race.
“We talk about it as well, obviously before the race. We go through strategy,” Ricciardo explained. “We have a few plans of what strategy we might do, but it was highly likely that me starting the race on a used Soft, I was going to finish the race on a new Soft and have an attacking last stint.
“Yeah, the call was quite expected. I know when you’re in the race you’re a little more emotional and it’s a bit more intense, but this call came as no surprise.
“And obviously, every lap counts when you’re on this tyre and you’re trying to get that little bit of grip out of it, so you need to react to the team call.
“Also, we weren’t in a points position yet, so there’s really nothing to lose: just let me go and see if I can do something about it.”
Having failed to overhaul the Haas, Ricciardo has said that he would have been willing to swap the places back in the circumstance where the team had asked him.
Questioned about there being a chance to give the position back to Tsunoda, Ricciardo said: “If we were in maybe a points position or something…But obviously in the end we were…whether I’m 13th or 14th, I don’t know if any driver cares about that but I don’t.
“So if the team said let him back by before the finish line I would’ve done it because it means nothing to me. Unless we’re in the points, who cares?
“But’s really just…I think if you’re in a points position, if he’s letting me by for ninth, he’s 10th or whatever, then you maybe swap again if I can’t get eighth. But in that situation, I guess it didn’t matter.
Ricciardo admits that he would have some questions of his own for the team post-race as he believes that the order arrived a lap later than was ideal for his race.
However, the Australian concedes that catching the one-stopping Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin to claim a valuable point in the season-opener was out of reach.
“To be honest, I would say being fully transparent from my side I think the call was already maybe one lap too late,” Ricciardo added. “And then he’s reacted later than that, so when there’s Soft tyres like this, every lap is crucial.
“So I think I already lost probably two and a half good laps of the tyre, and that was maybe the difference.
“Could we have caught, I guess it was maybe, or whoever was in 10th [Lance Stroll]? No. I think maybe at best we got Zhou [Guanyu].
“So points were still tricky. But we had to try something.”
He should have given back the position. The next statistic of who outrun his teammate, Richardo will be ahead of Tsunoda