What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Answer: neither scores any points at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen’s race-changing crash on lap 39 had an air of inevitability about it. Lacking the pace to make a fist of a fight with the frontrunners, they instead battled each other ferociously.
Ricciardo, disappointed to have let his teammate past, and Verstappen, keen to execute his first clean weekend of the year, were fuelled by pride more than anything else, and this added only more vigour to the duel.
For 35 laps the Australian was rebuffed – perhaps too forcefully; more on that later – by his teammate before getting past, but two laps later their positions had been switched back in the pits stops, forcing him to remount the challenge.
This time around their sparring ended in disaster. Ricciardo ran into the back of Verstappen’s car in the turn one braking zone, forcing both into retirement.
Team principal Christian Horner, striding from the pit wall to his office, was shaking with rage. Fuming, he blamed both drivers.
“Both were equally responsible,” he said. “What is annoying is that we’ve given away and awfully large amount of points today, [for] which we’ll be apologising to all members of staff that work so hard to put these cars together.”
It was a sign of just how severe the dressing down must’ve been that both drivers, were almost exclusively apologetic in their post-race interviews, refusing to buy into analysis of the crash.
“We’re thankful that we’re allowed to race,” Riccardo said. “It’s more just about saying sorry to the team and trying to just apologise the best way we can.”
Verstappen likewise toed the line.
“At the end of the day we are racing for a team and representing other people. When this happens, it is just not good enough for both of us.”
But The Roar is not bound by such team orders, so let’s ask the question: could Red Bull Racing’s Azerbaijan catastrophe have been avoided?
The context to the crash is critical to the analysis. Before the pit stop Ricciardo twice had his overtaking attempts aggressively defended against at turn one, the first example of which resulted in the two banging wheels with Daniel perilously close to the outside barrier.
Verstappen was racing Ricciardo hard. Daniel was making an effort to leave his teammate room by taking the widest possible line around turn one, but Max was showing him no such courtesy.
So Ricciardo tried the inside line instead.
He dummied wide, drawing Verstappen off his line to cover him, and then sliced back to the left to take the inside line – but the Dutchman did likewise approaching the braking zone, slamming the door on his teammate, who was already committed and had nowhere to go. They crashed.
Max refused to give his teammate room to race.
Categories of motorsport like Formula One are unusual in the broader sporting landscape in that teammates are also rivals, and with the same machinery they’re likely to compete for the same results.
Daniel Ricciardo (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
It’s this quirk that gave rise to racing’s golden rule to never crash into your teammate. Some teams disallow intra-team racing to forced drivers into abiding by this edict, while others, like Red Bull Racing, operate under a commendable free-to-race philosophy – but being free to race your teammate isn’t the same as being free to race another driver.
While Daniel must accept part of the blame for committing late to his overtaking attempt – and indeed the stewards found both drivers culpable for the crash – Verstappen deserves the lion’s share of the responsibility for pushing the standards of defensive driving to breaking point against a faster car piloted by his teammate.
Taking defensive or offensive driving to the absolute limit may be laudable when competing with another driver, but it’s foolish when competing with your teammate. Racing a sister car demands a safety margin Verstappen was unwilling to provide.
How the team builds from this moment collectively will be important, just as it was in the days of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel’s on-track feuding in years past. The good news is that Verstappen, at least in recent times, has shown he is willing to learn from his mistakes, and Ricciardo demands only that the team deals with both drivers equally.
Formula One, after all, is still a team sport. Ricciardo remembered that in Azerbaijan; Verstappen didn’t.
anon
Roar Pro
27.4 At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person. The rule is ambiguous. Was it dangerous or erratic? I thought Ricciardo punting up the inside despite failing to sell the dummy to Verstappen was more dangerous and erratic than what Verstappen did. There was never room for Ricciardo. Ricciardo never actually got his car alongside Verstappen. Even if Verstappen didn't cover Ricciardo off and merely maintained his line, I'm not sure if there's even room for Riccardo to get through the corner unless Verstappen completely yields to him like Bottas did in Shanghai. Verstappen didn't even move under braking. Ricciardo locked it up of his own accord.
Mac Hawk
Guest
Daniel has to leave Red Bull where that eextremely Eurocentric owner will never give him equal footing nwith his wunderkinds.
beeg
Guest
Simoc, the real problem is once VER moved across again, RIC has no aero, and can't stop. My opinion is VER should have let him go, and RIC would have missed the apex, the criss-cross happens, and no harm done. VER moved across with poor judgment. What VER did made the crash inevitable.
beeg
Guest
The problem in this instance with Verstappen moving back to his racing line is that he then steals the aero from RIC, and at that point, the crash is inevitable, because Dan can't physically stop. Max needed to have worked this out before he did it. Ric's move was a little optimistic, but Max should have moved to the right, and either let Dany go or most likely overshoot the apex.
Craig
Guest
Max did move twice and if you count the move back to the racing line (effectively a 2nd defensive move allowed due to the rules) to cover Dan's outside dummy move then he actually moved 3 times! This is how it went and it's plain to see from the footage: 1st move - On the pit lane straight as Dan was staring to close in, Max moved to the far left/inside to stop Dan getting the inside line on corner 1. 2nd move - Approaching corner 1 Dan dummies to the outside at which point Max starts drifting back towards the racing line as he's allowed under current rules to do. 3rd move - Seeing Max moving right back towards the racing line as expected in order to cover of another outside pass attempt, Dan ducks left back across to the inside now that a gap has opened up. Max sees this and moves (illegally) left again to purposely block him, leaving no space between him and the inside wall and no where for Dan to go who inevitably loses downforce, locks up brakes and rear ends Max. Everyone knows Dan is a smart and calculating driver on track, especially when he's got a hard nut to crack (or in this case a mobile road block). After something like 3 failed attempts to get by on the outside (1 nearly getting put into the wall by Max and it's amazing no damage occurred apart from missing tyre wall paint) it wasn't surprising for him to make this kind of move to try and get the inside line for a better chance of keeping the position and less chance of getting put into the outside wall by Max. What Dan didn't expect was for Max to clearly break the rules with a 2nd defensive move and also not leave him any space at all.
Craig
Guest
A race ban IS extreme but at the same time considering Max's track record for the year so far and the crash he caused at Baku having such potential for disaster, it might be the wake up call he needs to slap him in the face with the reality that his "racing style" is dangerous!
Waine Havo
Roar Rookie
But he did move off his line so, according to the rules, he needed to "leave at least one car width between his own car and the edge of the track on the approach to the corner".
Michael Lamonato
Expert
In practice the 'racing line' in this context is the original line he took out of the previous corner. Neither driver was ever on the actual racing line.
Tlux
Guest
Yes he is allowed to return to the racing line. But 1 cars width from the inside of the apex is not the racing line. The racing line is on the far right side of the track and cuts across the apex with the shallowest angle possible.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
I always enjoy Newey's expressions on these occasions! He's just in it to see his car's perform, he seems to hate all the egos and the politics — fair enough too. This pit stop was an interesting one. Ricciardo got a it held up by traffic on his out lap, but did that make all the difference? I haven't had a chance to look into it but you're right to say the undercut was disadvantageous in most cases this weekend. Should they have switched them back after that? Hard to say. Verstappen might've been quicker on the ultrasoft, so would that've been fair? I guess they didn't have time to think about it anyway!
Michael Lamonato
Expert
I don't think Max did move twice. He moved once and moved back to his original like (more or less), which is allowed. The problem was they were already at the braking zone when they made their moves, so they ran out of time to bail out.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
Fair call, Blake. Red Bull Racing definitely deserves credit for letting them race, and for continuing to let them race after this too.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
I don't believe this is the case, but then Ricciardo's decision to stay or go, like you say, may be more telling as to whether he feels he's being given a fair deal at RBR. I don't see it as the same Vettel/Webber bias — after all, Red Bull has invested heavily in Ricciardo's career for years; they bought Verstappen one year before his F1 debut — but even Daniel's said that Red Bull loves records and the the novelty factor, and Verstappen is a good example of that.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
Tom Kristensen was also a steward, and he's highly respected. I think a race ban is extreme — drivers do crash from time to time in motorsport. He's certainly having a messy run of races, and time will tell if he can clean himself up, but I would go so far just yet.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
In practice the racing line in this context is whatever line the defending driver exits the previous corner/enters the next corner. Verstappen held the inside line on the run down the straight, he didn't move to it in defence. If this wasn't the case, the stewards would be investigating most overtaking moves.
mark bp
Guest
sky sports uk pole on who was to blame.... 48% verstappen 17% ricardo 35% both. has not every mayor crash this year at the front of the race involved vestappen? in all cases the experts and polls seem to put him to blame. he takes the cheap way out to over take and defend ( dodgem style - carnival ride) instead of showing respect and skill. rub him out for a few races before he causes a mortality or mobidity to someone.
mark bp
Guest
sky sports uk pole on who was to blame.... 48% verstappen 17% ricardo 35% both. has not every mayor crash this year involved vestappen? in all cases most experts and polls seem to put him to blame for all of those crashes. he takes the cheap way out to over take and defend (dodgem style - carnival ride) instead of showing respect and skill. rub him out for a few races before he causes a mortality or mobidity to someone.
Owen Neidhart
Roar Rookie
Just putting it out there... Would Ricciardo have done the move he didn't have options...
mark bp
Guest
agreed..... daniel was quicker all race. verstappen was too aggressive with most of his defense moves. the right team move would be to let daniel through..... if the team was fair and not biased. daniel must go to mrc or ferrai. he will not get a fair deal at red bull. verstappen is their wonder child. it will be vettel webber 2 if he stays.
Dexter The Hamster
Guest
So Verstappen can set up this persona as a "overtake at your own risk, as I may crash into you" kind of driver and all is OK?? All the other drivers just have to go along with it, including the race stewards? Wow. And for you to resort to name calling is pretty ordinary. I cant speak on behalf of other roarers, however I have watched almost all F1 races since about 1988 so consider myself slightly above the "clueless" category. And the irony of someone typing into their keyboard, while bemoaning "keyboard warriors" is really staggering. But thanks for your input.