F1 | Ricciardo and Stroll have not yet clarified: “There’s not much to say”

Stroll rear-ended Ricciardo shortly before the restart following a safety car, denying the Australian the chance to score his first points of the 2024 season with the Racing Bulls.

Ricciardo never hid his disbelief at the accident, especially after Stroll did not want to take responsibility for what happened, trying to blame the riders in front of him, who according to him were guilty of having slowed down too much in that phase.

Yesterday, however, Daniel revealed that even once they arrived in Miami he and Stroll had not yet clarified, adding however that it would make no sense to do so if the latter still believed that he was not to blame for what happened.

“I would say no, because I feel like we’re not going anywhere,” Ricciardo replied when asked if he wanted to talk to the Canadian. “I can accept the apology, I’m not that much of an asshole. But the fact that there isn’t even one… It’s clear that he thinks he hasn’t done anything wrong. So I guess there’s not much to say.”

“Obviously, if we sit next to each other in the pilot briefing and he wants to talk about it, I’m not going to ignore him or anything.”

Ricciardo explained that in previous accidents he always tried to clarify the situation with his opponents, even if he wasn’t entirely convinced he was in the wrong, precisely to avoid the other drivers painting a target on his back.

“When I was younger, maybe I was more stubborn, I didn’t always apologize for something that was my fault,” he said. “But in the last few years, if I take someone out or even if it’s just a 50/50 situation, I always say, ‘look, maybe I could have done better, I’m sorry I ruined our day.’ I text them to clarify a little ‘ the things”.

“We’re all rivals, but you don’t want to have an objective and you don’t need enemies. I don’t want to say it’s an enemy or anything. It’s an incident and we move on.”

“But obviously you don’t want to get what you give. In that position, if you hadn’t talked to me in person, I would have at least said, ‘Hey man, sorry, I was looking the other way. Or at least you hit the brakes really hard. and it took me by surprise’. Anything was enough, at least something.”

“But yeah, that’s fine. Obviously we’re talking about it, but I’ve certainly moved on.”

Stroll avoided answering questions about the incident once he arrived in Miami and when asked if he had attempted to speak to Ricciardo, he replied: “Not in this room. These things are done behind closed doors.”