RB’s Ricciardo brands teammate Tsunoda immature after near crash

BAHRAIN — Daniel Ricciardo criticized the “immaturity” of his RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda after he narrowly avoided a collision on the cool-down lap following the conclusion of the Bahrain Grand Prix, won comfortably by Max Verstappen.

On the return lap to the pits after the race ended, Tsunoda dove inside Ricciardo's car at turn 8, crashing heavily in the process.

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Tsunoda then overtook Ricciardo's car coming out of the corner, missing by just centimeters.

Ricciardo was changing his dashboard settings and had only one hand on the wheel when Tsunoda passed by.

“What the fuck?! I'm going to keep it. It's a fucking helmet!” an angry Ricciardo said on team radio after the incident.

Tsunoda had been upset by RB's decision to carry out team orders and ask his drivers to swap positions, speaking on the radio: “Are you kidding me now?”

Since his debut in 2021, Tsunoda has developed a brash reputation, with this perception known to be one of the reasons why Red Bull's Christian Horner and Helmut Marko are reluctant to promote him to the company's senior team.

Ricciardo had clearly calmed down by the time he arrived in front of the media pen shortly afterwards.

Asked if he had spoken to Tsunoda before speaking to the press, Ricciardo replied: “I'll let him calm down. We know what he looks like. Obviously at the moment he's very… .it's Yuki.

“I'm doing well. I'm thinking long term. It's a long season, so we have to be able to work together, so I'm not going to come in there with an angry attitude. It's just that we have to be very honest and realistic: this should have happened when they called it.”

Tsunoda did not immediately follow the team's order, only doing so on the turn after being asked. Ricciardo said he, Tsunoda and the team discussed before the race the possibility of a swap if that scenario had played out the way it did.

“I came on the radio and I was trying to stay calm. A bit of immaturity, let's say that,” Ricciardo told F1 TV of his teammate. “I'm being very reasonable right now, but let's call it immaturity. He's visibly frustrated by the call for team orders.

“But let's be realistic, this is something we talked about before the race. It was very likely that I would use a soft at the end of the race.

“So he knew there was a chance I would have a pace advantage at the end,” Ricciardo continued. “And if he gets the call, then it’s going to happen.

“He's not giving me points. We're fighting for 13th place, so at least give us the best chance to have at least one car in the points.”

“It’s a long year,” Ricciardo said. “And we need to make sure everything is okay, so we're going to go back and have a meeting and be very mature about it, and we're looking forward to Jeddah.”

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will take place in Jeddah next Saturday March 9.