Red Bull will intervene to call off any future fights between their drivers which threaten to get out of control, Max Verstappen believes.
Verstappen told media including RaceFans in Spain the team will act to prevent a repeat of his race-ending collision with Daniel Ricciardo in Azerbaijan.
“If it maybe is like Baku again I think at one point the team will say maybe calm down a bit and follow each other the last few laps,” he said.“In general I think they still trust us. We also understand we don’t want that to happen again.”
The team said it blamed both drivers for the collision. Asked if he regretted any of his actions during the race, Verstappen said: “Just the final one together, I think we didn’t want to crash together.” He and Ricciardo will leave “a little bit more margin” in future, he added.
The relationship between the two drivers remains good despite the crash, said Verstappen. “We have a lot of respect for each other and we realise it was a mistake. You don’t like to crash with each other but there are no bad feelings at all.”
The pair were summoned to Red Bull’s factory to explain the collision and apologise to the team. “We are all racers so I think we all understand it can happen,” said Verstappen.
“We have done it before to explain our weekend to them, to thank them for the work hours they’re putting in to provide us with such a car and keep developing it as well. Of course there was also at the end an apology which I think is quite normal after such a weekend.”
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Joao (@johnmilk)
10th May 2018, 16:35
Multi 333! Multi 333!
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
10th May 2018, 19:25
Tough luck!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
11th May 2018, 0:08
Ahah, if ricciardo is number 3 I didn’t know, but if so it’d suck to give multi team orders!
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
11th May 2018, 1:49
But is 3 first, or 33?
moogleslam
10th May 2018, 17:10
Sorry, but two moves to defend was illegal the last time I checked. 100% the fault of Max for Baku.
Martijn (@)
11th May 2018, 10:13
A lot of people claim that and I agree the move didn’t help. But can someone show me the actual line in the ruke book please?
Ed
10th May 2018, 17:22
We alredy know Ricciardo knows how to respect team orders. Monaco 2015, a good example.
Verstappen is yet to show that. Singapore the same year too, a good example.
And a dozen of races later he was asking the team to tell Sainz to get out of his way.
This kid is taking too long to evolve.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
10th May 2018, 22:10
Well Kvyat respected team orders that race very well too then. He gave that position to Ricciardo to start with despite having a better start to the race and effectively not having the luck of having better tyres near the end of the race.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
10th May 2018, 17:57
Whilst it all sounds very responsible from Max explaining this, I feel he is in PR mode.
Max this season has driven horribly, flashes of his skill ruined often by rushing a move or not having giving the other driver respect on the track.
It will be interesting to see some team orders with these guys, I’ve never seen Max as being much of a team player especially if it disadvantages him whereas Daniel respects the team more.
nase
10th May 2018, 18:15
Expectation: “Hey Danny, stop harrassing Max, it’s not going to end well. Hold positions.”
Reality: “Hey Max, get out of the [censored by FOM] way!”
Boomerang
10th May 2018, 18:27
I see chances of Daniel staying at RBR diminishing slowly but at steady pace.
matt
11th May 2018, 0:22
yes but go where? the only reasonable option is ferrari when they get rid of kimi but if ric goes to ferrari while vettel is there his career is finished.
He will stay at red bull on a one year + option deal and hope for driver shuffle in 2020 and an emergence of an obvious title winning car.
Ed
11th May 2018, 4:58
i believe Hamilton won’t be driving in two years time. Mercedes is a good place to be.
The only good thing he has staying with Red Bull is to know he is the better driver of the two, as the team is failing to give them right-out-of-the-box fast cars for a long time already.
Palle (@palle)
11th May 2018, 8:03
I agree that Max is in PR mode here. I have been very impressed with him, but not this season. He fails to show ability to turn down the high risk driving, which causes the crashes and issues.
“If it maybe is like Baku again I think at one point the team will say maybe calm down a bit and follow each other the last few laps,” he said.
– But Max Your race engineer kept telling You to “Keep it Clean, Max!”, and what did You do, Hot-head?
However the past RBR (Christian Horner) has shown no ability to control their drivers, and I pressume it will continue. It would baffle and impress me a lot if RBR reacted by maybe changing Max’ strategy to get him out of a battle, which overheats, as was evident with Baku – we just waited for some bad incident to happen, feared (or like Mercedes, hoped for) the big crash. I don’t believe Max is currently able to accept a Team-order to let Daniel drive past and leave it at that.