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Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon recently shared their views on their early crash at the 2024 F1 Japanese Grand Prix.
In the first couple of corners at the start of the race, Ricciardo and Albon collided with each other, bringing out the red flag in lap 1 itself. The Australian driver had a poor start on his grid box and lost a couple of positions in turn one. On the other hand, the Williams driver was on soft tires and aimed to overtake as many drivers as he could.
When both drivers approached Turn 2, Ricciardo was ahead of Albon when the latter tried to overtake around the outside. However, the Visa Cash App RB driver moved to the right to take Turn 3 on a better line. This caused both cars to crash and hit the barriers.
Speaking to F1.com, Ricciardo explained how he was focused on Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll when he felt Albon's car crashing into him. Stroll's car was on Ricciardo's left-hand side during the race. He also acknowledged Albon's excellent run out of Turn 2.
“By Turn 2 it had settled a little bit, but then I remember getting out of 2 still with a little bit of lack of traction and I remember an Aston on my left, so I was kind of watching that car. Then, as I was starting to drift to open up 3, I felt Alex. I saw his onboard and he just had so much better drive out of 2. I don’t even know if he wanted to be there, but he could see me kind of going a little bit sideways,” Ricciardo said.
On the other hand, Albon shared his view and stated how he had a great tire grip coming out of Turn 2, which gave him the confidence to overtake the Australian. The Williams driver felt that Ricciardo did not see him during the incident and that he was unable to back out from getting pinched.
“I think I had not a great start, but obviously a bit better than the medium tire [drivers]. I had good traction coming out of Turn 2 and that was it really. I don’t think Daniel saw me and then it was just a bit of a pinching moment. I tried to back out of it but couldn’t quite get out of the way quickly enough,” Albon said.
Daniel Ricciardo addresses discussions with RB about a chassis swap
Daniel Ricciardo recently confirmed that he has been in talks with Visa Cash App RB to change chassis after his poor start to the 2024 F1 season.
As relayed by Speedcafe, the Aussie stated that he noticed some differences in the overall feel of the car and has addressed it to the team. He added that he wanted the chassis to change before he got criticized for underperforming.
“There has. I have certainly addressed that. Just again to make sure… there has been in the past a bit of difference. You know, obviously, I’ve driven F1 a long time now, but you can find some differences. So that was certainly something I raised the possibility of if we still are struggling. Before we tell me ‘I’m shit’, let’s get that sorted and put to bed,” the Honey Badger said.
Daniel Ricciardo has not yet scored any points in the 2024 F1 season, while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda scored a total of seven points after the Japanese GP.
