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Daniel Ricciardo believes Yuki Tsunoda will calm down after the race debrief post the Bahrain GP. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda, the Australian felt that his RB teammate’s reaction to the swap on track was a result of his short-tempered nature but not a conflicting situation in the team.
The Japanese driver was unhappy on his team radio and after the race because Daniel Ricciardo was asked to pass him. The 34-year-old was on a fresher set of soft tires with twenty laps left in the race and was quicker than his teammate.
Towards the end of the race, the team initiated a swap to let the former Red Bull driver pass in a final attempt at a points finish. The swap angered his teammate, who displayed it on track during the cooldown lap.
Daniel Ricciardo admitted not talking to his teammate after the race at Parc Ferme as he preferred to have a conversation when the Japanese driver was calmer. Despite the optics of the conflicting situation, he felt it was better to have a discussion in the race debrief when Tsunoda would understand that he could have swapped earlier.
Asked if he had spoken to Tsunoda at Parc Ferme, Daniel Ricciardo replied:
“No, I'll let him cool down I mean we know, we know what he's like, he's obviously during the moment. He's very.. that's again Yuki, but I think once we get back to the room and that he'll be completely completely fine and look I'm not I'm okay. Like it's, of course, again, I'm, 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 a, an angry attitude. It's just, we have to be very honest and realistic that it should have happened when, when they called it.”
He added:
“It's yes there was a little bit of a conflict today. But I don't want that to set the tone. I think we talk about it now in the briefing honestly and hopefully once he's calmed down he can say okay I should have moved to lap early.”
Daniel Ricciardo believes Yuki Tsunoda swapped too late which cost them time
Apart from the two Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo was the only other driver to opt for a soft tire for the final stint of the race. The intention behind the strategy was to have an advantage over other drivers who were on a harder tire compound.
Effectively, the strategy would have paid off if RB had swapped their drivers earlier but the swap was initiated two laps late. According to Ricciardo, his Japanese teammate swapped two laps after the call was made, cutting down the significant advantage he could have had to finish in the points.
Asked if the move to swap drivers was effective, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“Yeah, so to be honest, I would say being fully transparent from my side, I think the call was already maybe one lap too late and then he reacted later than that. So I, you know, obviously when there's soft tires like this, every lap is crucial.
"So I think I already lost probably two and a half good laps of the tire and that was maybe the difference. Could we have caught Stroll? I guess it was maybe in 10th or whoever was in 10th, no I think maybe at best we got Zhou. But so yeah points were still tricky but we had to try something.”
Asked how late Tsunoda let him pass, he said:
“It was more than a lap yeah I think it was I can't even remember where he let me by in the end.”
Explaining the strategy to swap drivers, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“Yeah we, uh, that was really it. We talk about it as well, obviously before the race. You know, this is, we go through strategy and it's, we're also, we have a few plans of what strategy we might do. But it was highly likely that me starting on the new soft, I would say, was gonna finish the race on a new soft and have an attacking last stint. So yeah the call was quite expected.”
“So yeah it's just look I know when you're in the race you're a little bit more emotional and it's a bit more intense but this call is came at no surprise and obviously every lap counts. When you're on this tire and you're trying to get that little bit of grip out of it. So you need need to you need to react to the team call and also we're not in 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.”
Daniel Ricciardo said Tsunoda was aware of the strategy to swap prior to the race. The Australian felt that his teammate’s heated reaction was an impulsive one, but that the Japanese driver should have expected it. It is understood that the strategy was discussed before but a late swap affected the advantage the former Red Bull driver could have had towards the end of the race.
Daniel Ricciardo eventually finished 13th ahead of his younger teammate, who finished 14th in the Bahrain GP.
