Ricciardo thinks that having a discussion with Stroll would be “useless”
Daniel Ricciardo explained that Lance Stroll has not cleared up the misunderstandings with him regarding their collision at the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, but said it is pointless to do so if Lance Stroll is not truly sorry.
Lance Stroll collided with Daniel Ricciardo under the safety car regime in Shanghai, ending the Australian’s chances of scoring his first points of the season with Racing Bulls.
Daniel Ricciardo was outraged by the incident, especially after it became clear that Stroll was denying responsibility for the incident and was accusing the drivers in front of him, which made his blood boil. Ricciardo revealed in Miami that he still had not cleared up the misunderstandings with Stroll, but suggested that it would be pointless to do so if Stroll still believed he was not responsible for the contact.
“I would say no, because I feel like it wouldn’t go anywhere,” Ricciardo replied when asked if he wanted to speak to the Canadian.
« I can accept apologies, I’m not that much of an asshole. But the fact is that there aren’t even any. He clearly doesn’t think he did anything wrong. So I guess there’s not much to say. Obviously, if we’re sitting next to each other during the pilots’ briefing and he wants to talk, I’m not going to ignore him or anything else.»
Ricciardo wants to move on.
The Racing Bulls driver explained that in previous incidents, he always made sure to clear up any misunderstandings with his rivals, even if he wasn’t entirely convinced he was in the wrong, just to prevent other drivers from targeting him.
When I was younger, maybe I was more stubborn, I didn’t always apologize for something that was my fault, he said. But in recent years, if I put someone off the track or even if it’s 50/50, I’ll just send them a text to clarify things a bit.
We are all rivals, but you don’t want a target on your back and you don’t need enemies. I won’t go as far as to say he is an enemy or anything like that. It’s an incident and we will move on.
« But obviously, you don’t want to receive what you give. In this situation, if I didn’t see him in person, I would at least say to him: ‘Hey man I’m sorry, I was looking elsewhere, or you braked really hard and it caught me off guard.’ It doesn’t matter, just something. »
