Team told me Vettel caused start crash – Ricciardo

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull avoided telling him his team mate had caused the first-lap crash which wrecked his race and blamed it on Sebastian Vettel instead.

The collision at turn two forced Ricciardo to pit early and left him with damage which spoiled his race.

“Obviously we finished the race but we had a lot of damage from the first corner,” Ricciardo told reporters after the race. “We don’t really know what our real pace was so it was just trying to do something but there was a lot of damage.”

Ricciardo said he didn’t think Vettel was to blame but his team told him the Ferrari driver had caused the collision. “I had Seb on the inside and Sergio [Perez] on the outside,” he explained.

“I saw Seb come into me but I knew it wasn’t him because the way he came into me was not natural, I knew he’d got hit from behind,” said Ricciardo. “I asked the team on the radio who’s fault it was, I think they said Seb to keep me a little bit calm but I saw a replay during the Safety Car, I saw the screens, looked like it was Dany.”

Ricciardo said he couldn’t understand what Kvyat was doing at the first corner. “Knowing where we were on track, Seb was on the inside, I was in the middle, Sergio was on the outside so there’s three cars pretty much taking up the whole track going into turn one,” he said. “And then if Dany’s hit Seb I don’t know where Dany was going.”

“It’s not like there was room on the inside. From what I remember we were sort of three in a line so the track was blocked for him.”

“I don’t really know why he was trying to, let’s say, out-brake, or if he was trying to defend someone behind I’m not sure. From what I saw on-track there was no room, it was just sort of follow-the-leader in a way once we got to the apex.”

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    40 comments on “Team told me Vettel caused start crash – Ricciardo”

    1. That’s genuinely disgraceful. Ashamed to call myself a Red Bull fan.

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        1st May 2016, 16:35

        Drink Monster instead… it’s dead good…

        1. @trenthamfolk is it? never tried it. Red Bull on the other hand, tastes horrible for me!

          1. Saurabh (@sksahukanker62)
            2nd May 2016, 16:00

            ya, monster tastes better…😋

      2. … Why?

        If they said “You got hit because of your team mate”, you don’t see how that could have a negative impact on his concentration?

        I think it should be taken as a tactical decision, not a legitimate accusation.

        1. He figured it out for himself anyway though, so I don’t see what that would achieve.

        2. agoodall (@)
          2nd May 2016, 2:42

          You treat your driver like an adult and tell him the truth. You don’t know the implications of lying to the driver. In a situation where the reliability of an opponent’s vehicle could make a difference in race position, you give your driver the most accurate and complete information allowed by the rules. Treat your driver like a professional. If you think your driver is an emotional basket case who can’t handle misfortune, you might consider finding a new driver. In this case Ricciardo figured it out on his own. Given that knowing the truth didn’t seem to affect him mentally (except for, perhaps, inserting doubt as to whether what he hears from his engineer is always 100% truthful), it appears that Red Bull underestimated Ricciardo. That might be a more telling indictment of RBR than the lie.

      3. Come on Kvyat and Redbull. That has to be the joke of the weekend, right?

    2. Red Bull pushing the riot shield for ‘safety’ reasons, meanwhile they have Kvyat smashing into the rear of drivers in corners with speeds up to 180mph. How about improving safety by not having so many mentalists driving your F1 cars

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        1st May 2016, 16:36

        Vettel is just as mental, if not more, just more experienced. What goes around comes around.

        1. Please stop watching F1

          1. Trenthamfolk (@)
            1st May 2016, 17:26

            No

          2. +1 haha

        2. @trenthamfolk Could you explain that a bit more? Especially that part where you think Vettel deserved this hit?

          1. Andrew (@bombinaround)
            5th May 2016, 13:53

            I don’t think @trenthamfolk was suggesting that Vettel deserved the hit.
            More that Vettel was young and a bit wild sometimes, like when he ran into the back of his future team mate while they were in 2nd and 3rd places in the wet at Fuji. Or when cut across the front of his team mate in Turkey ending his race. Or when he ran into the back of Button at Belgium in 2010.
            Lots of young drivers make similar mistakes, like Verstappen in Monaco last year, and go on to improve and iron out those errors.

        3. no but it was pretty funny to listen to him, on top of the irony. And it’s not like Vettel didn’t “let off” either.

        4. Simply not true

    3. Perhaps Kvyat was racing F1 game last night and he forgot to wake up..

    4. AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
      1st May 2016, 16:33

      Do you remember Ricciardo’s words after making contact (puncture) with Vettel in Mexico 2015: “Seb deserved that, he gave me no room.” ?
      This is kind of approach which belongs to RBR family…

      1. How is this even related? I don’t see any similarities. Ricciardo said something in the heat of the moment and seems to be the sort of driver who takes racecraft very seriously. Often analysing his moves after the race and giving the appropriate response in press conferences. I hardly think it’s fair to compare these incidents and tar him with the same brush. Ricciardo is proving himself to be top class and would perform and act the same regardless of which team he was in.
        My opinion of course.

        1. AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
          1st May 2016, 18:08

          I was not attacking Ric, I was refering to RBR odd attitude which Dan represents these days.

          1. I agree with Antoine here, The Red Bull Drivers program is kind of like the Unsullied in Game of thrones, save for the fact that they don’t cut their balls off. The drivers are trained to win a any cost and not to be ashamed of any tactics on and off the track.. Vettel, Kvyat, Verstappen, Sainz, Ricciardo, Speed, Buemi .. all could be equated. Alguersuari, I think, protested the way they are nurtured.

    5. Kvyat is rapidly turning into the new Maldonado. This time he saw a gap between Vettel’s rear wheels and went for it, not only once but twice like any proper racer should whenever he senses an opportunity.

      1. Hey! they said the new 2017 diffuser is big enough for you to crawl under it… maybe Kvyat was just training for next year!

      2. It seems that he did not see Vettel’s car because the guy has only two eyes and three cars were in front of him (Per, Ric, Vet). Two eyes, two cars!

      3. It was actually THREE times Kvyat hit Vettel. The second one was wheel to wheel (Kvyat’s front left to Vettel’s right rear), before the final one right up the chuff.

      4. After one race causing a big crash suddenly he is ‘rapidly turning into the new Maldonado’.

        Give it half a season at least, before making such a claim.

    6. Kvyat should explain to teammate and team that he had a physiologically-based reason for not braking earlier for the corner: He could not see that there were already 3 cars in the corner, because he only has 2 eyes.

      1. I read a comment later, but my thoughts as well. :)

    7. In China Kvyat “warned” the other drivers that he will be charging through whenever he could and post race ,when Sebastian questioned Kvyat’s first turn gamble ,Kvyat said that since they both made the podium there was nothing to discuss. I reaction to this and posted that Kvyat WILL cause an accident soon and I hoped that it would be another slow speed incident so that Kvyat did not kill anyone. Well…the very next start Kvyat did it again and I will repeat my warning:he is not safe,he does not seem to care about the other drivers and something more than 10 seconds and three points needs to be done.He just took a top driver and a top car out of a race within a few seconds of the start . He ruined Ferrari’s point total two races on a row ( ans Mercedes did not need that kind of help ),may have taken Sebastian out of the driver’s point race ( the the Mercedes drivers did not need that kind of help either )and more important he has displayed a dangerous attitude. F1 needs to do something substantial and do it now: suspend him for a race. Waiting till he gets 12 points ,which he will ,just means several other drivers and constructors will lose points and pay the price to repair the cars which Kvyat will certainly damage and it may mean that a driver or two will end up in a hospital or worse .
      You know what is going to happen : stop it before it does !

    8. Kvyat should be suspended 1 race for that display…the first hit was bad driving, the second had me thinking payback from Vettel scolding him in the winners room….and the 3rd about sums up what I think about him now….a pathetic F1 driver trying everything he can do to outperform his much more talented teammate.

      1. Second was solely Vettel’s faults. He applied brakes right in a middle of high speed corner.

    9. Sounds to me that not only Horner in his interview after the race, but also Ricciardo is annoyed with Kvyats action today. Rightfully so. He should have been disqualified from the race in my oppinion.

    10. Well, Kvyat is surely making way for Verstappen at Red Bull. Another mediocre driver that will not be missed when he’s gone.

      1. @corix Did you expect to be proved right this quickly?

        1. @keithcollantine Hahaha. Certainly not, Keith. Kvyat was rushed into the Red Bull last year, and I think they are doing the same with Verstappen right now. This is clearly Marko’s doing, but let’s hope Max can cope with the pressure better than Daniil.

    11. What i find funny is the Sky pundits – Johnny & Simon – constantly brought up the fact that Kvyat beat Ricciardo in the points last year and he beat him in China so they must be on an even footing to see who stays at RBR next year when Max gets promoted…

      And these guys get paid for being ‘experts’?

      And did i miss something or did Kvyat win driver of the day last race? He flopped into inheriting third after those in front had issues – crashes and punctures. Not sure he even made one legitimate pass for position in the whole race. Wow. Amazing drive…

      1. Kvyat is under a lot of pressure due to Verstappen. It is a foregone conclusion that Verstappen will be offered a seat at Red Bull next year, that means somebody has to go. The driver that is replaced by Verstappen will probably not be offered a seat at Torro Rosso as Red Bulls style is either you cut it or you don`t.

        Kvyat has to beat Ricciardo this season in order to stay in a top team. If he doesn`t he`ll be replaced by Verstappen and has to find some money to stay in a midfield team, but his ambitions in F1 are over.

        That`s probably the reason he`s comitting to these kamikaze moves at the moment. China was too ambitious in my view as he had to Count on other drivers to move but I`ll give him the benefit of the doubt. In Russia he just messed up, twice and there is no excuse.

        I do however understand the pressure the young guy is under, but if he keeps this up it will kill his career faster than poor results will.

    12. Kvyat made a mistake. China was racing, but this was a mistake. But he isn’t known for them so everyone calm down a bit.
      What I find interesting is that the two Dans at RB seem to get along well. However, every article that I see shows that Danny looks up to Dan Ric as the better driver. I am sure RIC is annoyed, but he kind of knows that this crash is a good thing in a round about way. It would be better if it didn’t happen, but since he did, he know he gets to sink the boot into Kvyat and put him in his place. Kvyat has been poor for 4 races this year and Ricciardo now gets to publicly put him in his place so that he can own him for the rest of the season. Kvyat is now mentally beaten. Game over for the rest of the year and game over for Kvyat retaining his seat. Ricciardo should look out though. He may find Verstappen harder to contain next year.

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