Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen did the one thing that teammates should never do when they crashed in the 2018 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix while driving for Red Bull.
Formula 1 made its annual trip to the City of Winds in April 2018 for the fourth of that year’s 21 rounds. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took the top honours in the 2018 Azerbaijan GP, too, but the headlines leaving Baku focused on the crash between Ricciardo and Verstappen.
Red Bull saw their drivers collide into Turn 1, as Ricciardo tried to re-overtake Verstappen for fourth place on Lap 40 of the 2018 Azerbaijan GP. Verstappen had overcut the Australian by pitting on L38 and was not prepared to lose the place when his teammate attempted a dive.
Ricciardo sensed his chance to get down Verstappen’s inside at T1, having failed to get past on the outside earlier in the race. But when he changed direction approaching the braking zone, Verstappen reacted and took the air off Ricciardo’s front wing and they made contact.
Daniel Ricciardo was ‘thankful’ Red Bull let their drivers battle, but his Baku crash with Max Verstappen pushed the ‘limit’
Verstappen’s late move left Ricciardo with no time or room to react, so the Australian drove into the rear of the Dutchman’s RB14. The crash ended both of their races on the spot, and also triggered the safety car period during which Haas star Romain Grosjean spun while P6.
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Their race-ending crash on Lap 40 in Baku was also not the first incident between Ricciardo and Verstappen during the 2018 Azerbaijan GP. So, while Ricciardo was “thankful” that Red Bull let them fight so intently, he admitted after the race that they had flirted with the “limit”.
Ricciardo told Sky Sports after the 2018 Azerbaijan GP: “We’re thankful that we’re allowed to race, especially I think myself and Max, we love to race, as we show. So, that’s cool.
“And we did get close a few times in the race, already touching and that. So, sometimes we were on the limit. As far as the incident itself, it’s a tough one.”
Red Bull’s handling of the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix set the foundations for Daniel Ricciardo’s exit
While Ricciardo said he was “thankful” for Red Bull letting him and Verstappen race the way they did during the 2018 Azerbaijan GP, the fallout from their infamous crash in Baku served to establish the foundations for the Australian’s decision to join Renault in the 2019 season.
Their crash in Baku was the result of a clear internal fight to secure supremacy in the Milton Keynes team. But Ricciardo felt Red Bull were siding with Verstappen, both before and after the crash. It was their third campaign as teammates and, ultimately, also their last together.
So, Ricciardo told Beyond The Grid in 2019 that his first thought after the crash in Baku was that Red Bull “deserve this”, as the team never instructed Verstappen to stop his aggressive defensive moves earlier in the 2018 Azerbaijan GP when a bigger incident was always likely.
Two of Red Bull’s greatest ever F1 drivers had come close to contact even as early as Lap 6 of 51 in the Azerbaijan GP. Verstappen forced Ricciardo to yield P4 to the Dutchman with his late lunge into Turn 2. Yet there was no such surrender when they fought again on L12 at T1.
Verstappen rubbed wheels with Ricciardo on the exit of Turn 1, having also locked up under braking trying to retain the place. A repeat was also nearly on the cards on Lap 27 when the Australian again tried to go around Verstappen’s outside. Ricciardo eventually got by on L35.
Yet Red Bull then pitted Ricciardo on Lap 37 of the 2018 Azerbaijan GP, which let Verstappen do the overcut by stopping one lap later. So, when Ricciardo saw a chance to get back ahead with DRS at T1 on L40, he tried his luck down the inside just for Verstappen to shut the door.