A difficult day for Red Bull at their home race in Austria was epitomised by a spat which broke out over the radio in Q3 with Daniel Ricciardo angry at having to slipstream his teammate Max Verstappen.
The two drivers tried to complete three runs in the top 10 shootout but on the out-lap for the third, the Australian would slow down wanting the Dutchman to pass and telling the pit-wall “there’s no point me running” and he was just “punching a hole”.
Verstappen was then told to simply pass Ricciardo but refused, claiming he had offered a slipstream last weekend in France and it was “discipline”.
At the end of it, it was the 20-year-old who produced a good enough final lap for fifth while the birthday boy on Sunday was beaten by the Haas of Romain Grosjean and will start seventh.
“I’m not too impressed to be honest,” Ricciardo stated afterwards. “We had three runs and we were just punching a hole for everyone. I’m not that happy at all. We could have been more fair.”
Verstappen insisted, however, it was just the same policy that Red Bull employs at every race weekend.
“I was going in front in Paul Ricard, he was going in front the race before that,” he said. “So we just discussed that – this was his weekend to go in front. That’s how it is. It’s very simple.”
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Team boss Christian Horner echoed Max, stating it had been the method for seven years that the drivers alternate who’s ahead on a race-by-race basis, though did have some sympathy for Daniel too.
“Obviously he felt that Max might be benefitting from that so that is why he obviously started to back up a bit but I think that P5 and P7 is probably as much as we could do today and hopefully we can have better pace tomorrow,” the Briton said.
“The drivers know explicitly every weekend it alternates. So last weekend, Max drove out first and Daniel would have followed him. Next weekend it will be the other way round and even in the debrief from weekend to weekend, it’s them who talks first so it is the way to keep it as scrupulously fair as we can.
“They know the situation, so there is nothing to explain.”
Perhaps backtracking a little on his initial stance, Ricciardo conceded that the way he went about airing his frustration was wrong.
“(I) probably should have just talked about it more beforehand,” he acknowledged. “I had concerns and I spoke a little bit with my engineer about it, but I guess as a team it wasn’t discussed.
“But in my mind, in the car, I’m just like, ‘It’s obvious what’s happening, isn’t it? Give me a run where I’m getting a tow instead of giving everyone else a tow’.”
The timing is pretty interesting too, at Red Bull’s home race and with Ricciardo reportedly close to signing a new two-year extension to his contract. Anything to read from that? Who knows.
