Daniel Ricciardo says he has âcleared the airâ with Yuki Tsunoda after he called his RB teammate a âf***ing helmetâ during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Red Bullâs sister team went into the 2024 season opener last weekend as dark horses after promising results in testing but ultimately both cars finished outside of the points.
Toward the end of the race, Ricciardo found himself behind Tsunoda who was chasing Kevin Magnussen in 12th place but struggling to find a way past the Haas.
RB instructed the Japanese driver to let his teammate, who was on fresher tyres, past so he could have a go at overtaking Magnussen, and after angrily arguing on the radio eventually complied.
Ricciardo failed to get the move done and did not let Tsunoda back past before the chequered flag as is convention in these scenarios, leaving the latter furious and in retaliation he overtook him on the cooldown lap and dangerously swerved toward him.
Ricciardo wasnât impressed, calling Tsunoda a âf***ing helmetâ over the team radio.
Thankfully for the drivers and the team, Ricciardo has played down talk of a rift between himself and his younger teammate, revealing that the pair have discussed the incident and already moved on from it.
Speaking ahead of this weekendâs Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Aussie said: âAfter our technical briefing, we then had a private briefing and just cleared the air.
âIt was important for Yuki and I, we had to do it, but also for the team to know that weâre not going to have problems moving forward. It was thing that we really needed to do, but also it helped us just leave that room and be like âalright, itâs doneâ.â
Addressing his comments directly, the 34-year-old admitted he is not always a âfull adultâ and is capable of âimmature thingsâ.
âAt the end of the race, thereâs some frustrations, youâre also a bit exhausted, you can always do maybe some things, which are a little bit out of character. So I try to take these things into account as well,â he added.
âBut it was also something that was for us afterwards. Obviously enough got put out into the public, but it was important that we spoke after the race.
âNo oneâs going to benefit from us having a rivalry or attention or anything like this, especially when the team has new personnel, everyoneâs trying to pick each other up and kind of build themselves in the confidence like, we need to help them do that as well.
âWhat happened at the end of the race⌠yes, it wasnât great. But actually then two hours later, how we walked out of that meeting, I think actually put the team in a better place than it was even Sunday morning.â
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