Daniel Ricciardo has issued an apology to Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg after the pair crashed during the Italian Grand Prix.
The collision occurred at Turn 8 on the first lap of the race, forcing Hulkenberg's Haas off the track and allowing his teammate Kevin Magnussen to take advantage. The fallout from this incident was immediate, with Ricciardo receiving a five-second time penalty for causing the collision. This penalty was compounded by a subsequent 10-second penalty after one of his mechanics touched the car during the initial penalty period in the pits.
The Australian driver, who eventually finished 13th, explained to the media, as quoted by Crash.net:
“Ultimately, we weren’t quick enough today, even without the penalties,” he said.
“We tried, and I was enjoying the wheel-to-wheel racing at the start, but I made contact with Nico in Turn 8.
“I spoke to him after the race, I thought we had space, but felt the contact so didn’t give him enough room, and I apologised.
“It’s tough as you race hard but the smallest margins make a difference.
“The car felt ok after, and we pushed as hard as we could with what we had. I was trying to get the maximum out of the car from Friday afternoon to today.
“Personally, I feel a lot better this weekend, and we were close to scoring points.”
The race also saw another dramatic collision involving Yuki Tsunoda and Hulkenberg. Tsunoda was forced to retire early after sustaining floor damage from the incident. The Japanese driver commented:
“I’m pretty frustrated, it’s a shame as my race finished a few laps after the start due to a contact with Nico.
“I tried to leave as much space as possible, but it seemed he locked up, causing him to lose control and crash into me.
“Unfortunately, we had to retire the car as we got some damage on the floor.
“I felt it straight away and tried to continue, but the car was sliding around and I simply wasn’t able to drive it.
“We have Baku and Singapore next, our car should perform well there, so hopefully we’ll have good weekends ahead.”
Laurent Mekies also weighed in on the multiple incidents involving Hulkenberg.
“As for today’s race, one could say it was dictated by Hulkenberg, with Daniel given a five-second penalty, having forced him of the track, before Nico then drove into Yuki, leading to us retiring the car,” he said.
“The most frustrating aspect of Yuki’s retirement is that we lost 40 laps that would have increased our understanding of the updates we introduced here.
“Daniel then received a further 10-second penalty because we didn’t execute the first one correctly.
“We will need to review our procedures in this scenario and learn from today’s mistake. These things happen, but our pit crew work has generally been exceptional this season.”
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