On paper, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo could be said to be the strongest F1 partnership in the last five years. However, they shared a rocky relationship as teammates even though they were best friends outside the track.
In 2017 and 2018, the two started to give severe headaches to the management. Ricciardo’s exit from Red Bull was also influenced by Max Verstappen’s rising stature in the team, because of which he felt neglected.
The Australian driver decided that he couldn’t win the championship. Thus, he went for other teams. Although he didn’t win anything elsewhere, he was convinced he couldn’t be Verstappen’s teammate anymore.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in the media pen#USGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/2ka8O9mBSM
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Also read: Michael Schumacher preferred Sebastian Vettel to break all records over Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen refused to overtake Daniel Ricciardo but not out of selflessness
Verstappen hardly allows anyone to overtake him on team orders. But at one instance, he even refused to overtake Ricciardo when the team instructed him. But it was nothing out of honesty or selflessness.
It was during the Austrian Grand Prix 2018 qualifying. Verstappen was right behind Ricciardo, and the latter was going tremendously slow. Seeing this, the team ordered Verstappen to go ahead, but Verstappen refused and said, “It’s about discipline”.
Seeing it without context, it can be assumed that Verstappen was being selfless. However, the Dutchman wanted a tow from Ricciardo and vice versa. Thus, the only thing both wanted to do was get a competitive edge.
The Honey-Badger was supposed to give a slipstream
Verstappen had given a tow to Ricciardo in France in the previous race. So it was Ricciardo’s time to return the favour, but the Australian apparently wanted to have the edge.
On the other hand, by not going ahead, Verstappen was forcing his teammate to go faster and eventually give him the tow, as it was Q3, and time was running out to do the last flying lap.
So, Ricciardo needed to go ahead. In the end, the situation didn’t progress. Ricciardo finished P5 and Verstappen P7 in that qualifying, sandwiching Haas’ Romain Grosjean.
What followed after the event was the blame game by two drivers towards each other. This incident only reflected the cracks in Red Bull, and in the end, Ricciardo chose to leave Red Bull for Renault.
