Ricciardo Apologizes After Hulkenberg Clash at Italian GP; Tsunoda’s Race Ends in Frustration

Daniel Ricciardo comments on incident with Nico Hulkenberg: "I believed there was enough room; I said sorry."

Daniel Ricciardo responds to collision involving Haas during the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo mentioned that he offered an apology to Nico Hulkenberg after the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix due to a collision that occurred between them on the first lap.

Red Bull driver Ricciardo was competing with Hulkenberg in the middle of the field during the first lap of Sunday’s race at Monza when they collided at Turn 8.

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

The Australian driver initially received a five-second time penalty for the incident. However, he later had to serve a 10-second penalty because one of his mechanics touched his car during the pit stop while he was serving the initial penalty.

Ricciardo finished a challenging home race for the Red Bull team in 13th place.

"In the end, we simply weren't fast enough today, even without factoring in the penalties," he stated.

"We made an effort, and I was having fun with the close racing at the beginning, but I ended up colliding with Nico at Turn 8.

"After the race, I had a conversation with him. I initially believed there was enough space between us, but I felt the impact, which indicated I hadn't given him sufficient room. I offered my apologies."

"It's challenging because you compete intensely, but even the slightest differences can be crucial."

"The vehicle performed adequately afterward, and we exerted maximum effort given our resources. From Friday afternoon until today, I endeavored to extract the utmost performance from the car."

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

Tsunoda 'frustrated' after incident

According to team member Laurent Mekies, the performance of Red Bull at the Italian Grand Prix was significantly influenced by Nico Hulkenberg. A crash involving the Haas driver and Yuki Tsunoda resulted in the Japanese driver having to retire from the race.

"I'm quite irritated; 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 damage sustained to the floor."

"I noticed the issue immediately and attempted to keep going, but the vehicle was skidding, making it impossible for me to control it."

"We have upcoming races in Baku and Singapore, where our car is expected to perform strongly. We're optimistic about having successful weekends there."

Mekies is frustrated about the Tsunoda incident because it caused him to lose important track time with the upgraded RB car that was introduced at Monza.

"Regarding today's race, it could be said that Hulkenberg set the pace. Daniel received a five-second penalty for pushing him off the track, after which Nico collided with Yuki, resulting in our decision to retire the car," he stated.

"The most disappointing part of Yuki's retirement is that we missed out on 40 laps which would have helped us better understand the new updates we implemented here."

“Daniel was given an additional 10-second penalty due to an error in the implementation of the initial penalty.

"We need to reassess our procedures in this situation and take lessons from today's error. Although incidents like this occur, our pit crew's performance has been outstanding overall this season."

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