Furious Red Bull boss Christian Horner has demanded that Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo apologise in person to the team’s 800 staff after the teammates’ refusal to back off led to their crash on lap 40 of the Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton won the race after the unlucky Valtteri Bottas suffered a puncture three laps from the finish, but the Red Bull drama was just as gripping, despite it not involving a spot on the podium. Verstappen and Ricciardo had been at each other’s throats for much of the race on the streets of Baku, and their high-speed collision with 11 laps remaining appeared almost inevitable.
On the longest and fastest straight on the Formula One calendar, Ricciardo lined up his overtake in the battle for fourth. But as Verstappen moved to his left to cover off his team-mate, Ricciardo was left with little room for manoeuvre and thudded into the back of him. In an instant, both cars were wiped out of the race. Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s technical boss, removed his headset in disgust and stormed straight from the pit wall to the garage. Horner sat motionless, aghast at what he had just witnessed.
“The most important thing is that they both recognise that what happened today is unacceptable,” Horner said. “We’ve let them race hard against each other, but unfortunately today has resulted in the worst possible scenario, where you’ve had both drivers make contact and retire from the grand prix. “It is enormously disappointing. They are both in the doghouse. “What’s annoying is that we’ve given away an awfully large amount of points today, so both drivers will be apologising to all the members of staff, who work so hard to put these cars together, before the next race in Barcelona.”
Stewards hauled both men before them in the hours after the race and determined they were equally at fault, hitting them with a reprimand. Niki Lauda, the non-executive chairman for Mercedes and three-time world champion, however, laid the blame firmly at Verstappen’s door. It is Verstappen’s third collision in as many races following run-ins with Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and now Ricciardo.
Lauda added: “I would go home and cry. It is a disaster. I would bring them both into the office, and tell them how much less they will get paid for the damage they have done.” The incident comes as Ricciardo is publicly considering a move to Ferrari or Mercedes for next season. The stewards ruled that Verstappen had moved twice to defend his position — when only one move is allowed — and said Ricciardo admitted he left it “too late” to overtake. Everyone is pretty heartbroken.” Verstappen said he didn’t want the team to stop him fighting Ricciardo on the track in the future. “We will learn from this and have to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Verstappen said.
