Ricciardo Apologizes After Hulkenberg Clash at Monza: ‘I Thought We Had Space

Daniel Ricciardo comments on his collision with Nico Hulkenberg: “I believed there was enough room; I said sorry”

Daniel Ricciardo addresses the event involving Haas during the Italian Grand Prix in Formula 1

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

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo clashed with Nico Hulkenberg while jockeying for position in the middle of the pack during the first lap of the race at Monza on Sunday, with the incident occurring at Turn 8.

Ricciardo mentioned that he believed he had enough room, but then experienced contact. This resulted in Hulkenberg's Haas being pushed onto the dirt, allowing his teammate Kevin Magnussen to overtake him.

The Australian driver initially received a five-second time penalty for the incident. However, he was later required to serve a 10-second penalty because one of his mechanics made contact with his car during the pitstop while he was serving the original penalty.

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

“In the end, we didn’t have enough speed today, even disregarding the penalties,” he stated.

"We gave it a shot, and I was having fun with the close racing at the beginning, but then I collided with Nico in Turn 8."

"After the race, I talked to him and explained that I believed there was enough space. However, I felt the contact and realized I hadn't given him sufficient room, so I apologized."

"It's challenging because you compete intensely, but even the tiniest differences can have a significant impact."

"The vehicle performed adequately afterwards, and we exerted maximum effort with the resources available. From Friday afternoon until today, I aimed to extract the car's full potential."

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

Tsunoda Expresses Disappointment

The Italian Grand Prix for the RB team was heavily influenced by Nico Hulkenberg, says team member Laurent Mekies. A crash involving the Haas driver and Yuki Tsunoda led to the Japanese driver's early exit from the race.

"I'm quite upset; it's unfortunate that my race ended just a few laps in because of an incident with Nico," Tsunoda mentioned.

"I attempted to maintain a significant distance, but it appeared he froze up, resulting in a loss of control and a collision with me."

"Regrettably, we had to pull the car out of the race because the floor sustained some damage."

"I noticed it immediately and attempted to keep going, but the vehicle was skidding and I just couldn't control it."

"Next up are Baku and Singapore, where our vehicle ought to excel, so we’re optimistic about having successful weekends."

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

"Reflecting on today's race, it's fair to say Hulkenberg set the pace. Daniel received a five-second penalty for pushing him off the track, and subsequently, Nico collided with Yuki, which resulted in us having to retire the car," he stated.

"The most disappointing part of Yuki's retirement is that we missed out on 40 laps that could have boosted our knowledge of the new updates we implemented here."

"Daniel was given an additional 10-second penalty because we failed to properly implement the initial penalty."

"We'll have to go over our procedures for this situation and take lessons from the error made today. Although incidents like this can occur, our pit crew's performance has typically been outstanding this season."

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