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Verstappen on Baku-crash: We weren't allowed to blame each other

Verstappen on Baku-crash: "We weren't allowed to blame each other"

09-12-2018 16:53
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has revealed that after his big crash with teammate Daniel Ricciardo during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the duo wasn't allowed to blame each other in the aftermath by the team.

The duo had been battling all race long, so when the collision eventually happened, it wasn't really a surprise. They'd had contact already in the race and they were racing very hard. On a street circuit like the one in Baku with no run-off area's, that can be extremely dangerous, as Ricciardo and Verstappen proved.

The Aussie had DRS on a straight and tried a move, but defensive manoeuvres from Verstappen denied him from passing, eventually leaving him out of road and nailing the RB14 of his teammate, taking both cars out in the process.

"That wasn't very good," Verstappen admitted in an exclusive interview with Ziggo Sport.

"With the first collision I didn't have much grip, so I didn't drive into him on purpose."

The first one left both cars unharmed, but the second one saw both cars retire from the race. Speaking about the aftermath of the crash, Verstappen explained that there wasn't much drama.

"The conversation after was pretty relaxed, we looked at each other and we both thought 'this isn't good'. The team did indeed give us instructions to not point fingers at each other in the media, but just to say that both drivers were at fault.

"Behind the scenes, no fingers were pointed either. It doesn't matter who was at fault, because the team simply said we couldn't crash into each other.

"Helmut [Marko] and Christian [Horner] were waiting on us, but Daniel and I went to change first. They came to our room and yelled 'come to the office now'. Fortunately, nobody is worse than my dad, so I wasn't nervous."