Ricciardo Apologizes After Hulkenberg Clash as Penalties Mar Italian GP for RB Team

Daniel Ricciardo comments on the collision involving Nico Hulkenberg: “I believed there was enough room; I said sorry.”

Daniel Ricciardo addresses the situation with Haas during the F1 Italian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo mentioned that he apologized to Nico Hulkenberg after they collided on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix in Formula 1.

Red Bull driver Ricciardo found himself in a tussle with Hulkenberg in the middle of the pack during the first lap of Sunday’s Monza race, resulting in a collision at Turn 8.

Ricciardo mentioned that he believed he had enough room, but then experienced a collision – resulting in Hulkenberg’s Haas being pushed onto the dirt and losing a position to his teammate Kevin Magnussen.

The Australian racer received a five-second penalty for the incident but subsequently had to serve a 10-second penalty because one of his mechanics made contact with his car while he was serving the initial penalty during his pitstop.

Ricciardo finished a difficult race on home turf for the Red Bull team in 13th place.

“In the end, our speed just wasn’t sufficient today, even without factoring in the penalties,” he remarked.

“We gave it our best shot, and I was having a great time battling closely at the beginning, but I ended up colliding with Nico at Turn 8.

"After the race, I talked to him and mentioned that I believed we had enough space. However, I felt the impact and realized I hadn't given him sufficient room, so I apologized."

"It's challenging because you compete intensely, but even the tiniest differences matter."

"The vehicle seemed fine afterward, and we gave it everything we had. From Friday afternoon until today, I tried to extract the most performance possible from the car."

"From my perspective, I'm feeling much improved this weekend, and we were nearly able to earn some points."

Tsunoda was 'frustrated'

Laurent Mekies from RB stated that the Italian GP was heavily influenced by Hulkenberg, as an incident between the Haas driver and Yuki Tsunoda led to the Japanese driver's race coming to an early end.

"I am quite disappointed; it's unfortunate that my race ended just a few laps in because of a collision with Nico," Tsunoda remarked.

"I attempted to give as much room as I could, but it appeared he froze up, resulting in him losing control and colliding with me."

“Regrettably, we had to withdraw the car from the race due to floor damage.

"Immediately, I sensed something was wrong and attempted to keep going, but the car was skidding uncontrollably, making it impossible for me to drive."

"We're heading to Baku and Singapore next, and our car is expected to do well at those tracks. We're optimistic about having strong performances in the upcoming weekends."

Mekies is upset about the Tsunoda incident because it cost him crucial time on the track with the newly updated RB car at Monza.

“Today’s race was largely controlled by Hulkenberg. Daniel received a five-second penalty for pushing him off the track, and afterward, Nico collided with Yuki, which forced us to retire the car,” he explained.

The most exasperating part of Yuki's retirement is missing out on 40 laps that could have enhanced our knowledge of the new updates we implemented here.

"Daniel was given an additional 10-second penalty because we didn't properly carry out the initial penalty."

"We must re-evaluate our protocols in this situation and take lessons from the error made today. While such incidents occur, our pit crew has mostly performed outstandingly this season."

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