Daniel Ricciardo decided to avoid a fuss over the spat that occurred with RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix as he’s “thinking long-term”.
Both RB cars were situated outside of the points in the closing stages of the season-opener when Ricciardo approached Tsunoda, who was behind Kevin Magnussen.
With Tsunoda on the Hard tyre and Ricciardo on the Soft compound, RB instructed the Japanese driver to let his team-mate through much to his dissatisfaction.
Having abided with the request and seen Ricciardo unable to pass the Haas, Tsunoda showed his frustration on the cooldown lap with a swerve towards the sister car.
Although Ricciardo stated that such a scenario had been discussed pre-race, Tsunoda claimed that the order had been a surprise and wanted a discussion to be held.
However, Ricciardo believes that Tsunoda would realise he made a mistake once the dust had settled and explained that he wanted to avoid a
“Look, it’s race one of 24. Yes, there was a little bit of conflict today, but I don’t want that to set the tone,” Ricciardo said.
“I think we talk about it now in the briefing, honestly, and hopefully once he’s calmed down, he can say, ‘OK, yeah, I should’ve moved a lap earlier’.
Asked whether he had spoken to Tsunoda at that point, Ricciardo said: “No, no. I’ll let him cool down. We know what he’s like; he’s obviously during the moment, he’s very…that’s Yuki. But I think once we get back to the room he’ll be completely fine.
“I’m OK; of course, again, I’m thinking long-term. This is a long season, so we need to be able to work together, so I’m not going to come in there with an angry attitude.
“It’s just we have to be very honest and realistic that it should’ve happened when they called it.”
RB had been tipped to be a contender for a points finish in Bahrain following the strengthening of its technical ties with Red Bull and a solid run in pre-season testing.
But while Tsunoda qualified in 11th and ran in the points in the opening stages, the Faenza-based squad were cut adrift from the five teams who occupied the top 10.
Ricciardo stressed that he was not “concerned” with RB’s competitiveness and believes it will become a stronger outfit as the record 24-race calendar progresses.
“It’s such a long season, and like Saudi is a high-speed track, it’s completely different asphalt, so you don’t have the kind of tyre deg as you have it here,” he added. “So whether that’s good or not for us, we’ll see. But it could also change track-to-track.
“But we know that from the winter, we knew maybe we’d have a little bit of a steady start to the season.
“We do believe as the season goes on we’ll improve the car hopefully a little bit more than others.
“I’m not concerned; would have loved to have started the season in the points, but we’ll hopefully be on an upwards trajectory.
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