03/05/2024
NEWS STORY
"He clearly doesn't think he did anything wrong," says Daniel Ricciardo as he reveals that there has been no apology from Lance Stroll following Shanghai clash.
The Aston Martin driver was handed a 10s penalty (and 2 penalty points) after clashing with Ricciardo in Turn 14 ahead of the withdrawal of the Safety Car.
According to the stewards, the cars were all travelling slowly to set up for the restart when Stroll slowed down to take the corner and also try to match the pace of the group of cars in front. He subsequently collided with Ricciardo, the stewards feeling that the Canadian ought to have anticipated the pace of the cars in front, particularly the RB, and should have been prepared to brake accordingly.
Had he done that, they felt, it would have avoided the collision and consequently, Stroll was "predominantly to blame for the collision that ultimately led to Ricciardo having to retire from the race".
However, talking on his radio in the moments after the incident, Stroll blamed the RB driver, and when told of the time penalty responded: "Unbelievable man!" which didn't exactly go down too well with the Australian.
"I'd slowly started to calm down, and then I was told what Lance thinks of the incident," said Ricciardo after the race. "Apparently, I'm an idiot, and it was my fault.
"That made my blood boil," he admitted, "because it's clear as day and it's also behind a safety car. The only thing you've got to do is watch the car in front," he continued. "We can't predict what the leader's gonna do. The race doesn't start until the control line. I'm doing my best not to say what I want to say, but f*** that guy... and I'm being nice, too! But if that's what he thinks..."
Two weeks later and Ricciardo has revealed that there hasn't been a sniff of contrition from the Canadian. Asked if he might seek out the Aston Martin driver for an apology, the RB driver said: "I would say no, because I feel it's not going to go anywhere.
"If he texted just saying, 'Yeah, you know, my bad', whatever... I can accept an apology, I'm not that much of an asshole. But the fact that there's not even that...
"He clearly doesn't think he did anything wrong," he sighed. "So I guess there's not much to say. Obviously, if we sit next to each other in the drivers' briefing and he wants to chat, I'm not going to ignore him or anything."
"It's history now, I'm focused on this weekend," said Stroll, when asked about the incident at Thursday's press conference. "I don't really want to go too much into detail about it.
"It was unfortunate, for sure," he added. "You know, I was also trying to have a good race, and it was a very unfortunate ending to it, but just focused on Miami now."
Asked if he will speak to Ricciardo, he replied: "That's not for this room. Those things are done behind closed doors."
Check out our Friday gallery from Miami here.