Ricciardo Awaits Stroll's Apology After Clash

Daniel Ricciardo expresses ongoing frustration over a racing incident with Lance Stroll, awaiting an overdue apology.

Daniel Ricciardo remains frustrated by his retirement in China, and by the lack of foresight of Lance Stroll, who collided with him and then accused him of slowing down. The RB F1 driver has moved on but is surprised that his rival did not admit his faults and apologize.

“I’m in a better mood because we’re back on a track, and I was super frustrated—every retirement is super frustrating, but this one was even more so,” Ricciardo stated. “If he had just said ‘sorry, it’s my fault,’ I would have accepted his apology because I’m not an asshole.”

“But the fact that he clearly thinks he did nothing wrong shows that there’s not much to say. Listen, it’s clear that if we’re sitting next to each other tomorrow at the drivers’ briefing and he wants to talk, I’m not going to ignore him.”

Ricciardo explains that over time, he has learned to change his perception of incidents and to acknowledge his mistakes without bad faith: “When I was younger, I might have been more stubborn and didn’t always apologize for something that was my fault.”

“But in recent years, if I make a mistake or if I take someone out, even if it’s 50-50, I say ‘I’m sorry for ruining our race,’ like with Kevin [Magnussen] in Brazil or with Yuki [Tsunoda] in Mexico when I was with McLaren in 2022.”

“I didn’t think I was at fault at the time, but from my side, I was thinking that we’re all rivals, but you don’t need or want to have a target on your back, you don’t need enemies.”

“I’m not going as far as to say that it’s an enemy or anything, it’s just an incident and we will move on. I’m not directing it against him, but that’s my approach and of course, if I have problems on the track with someone, I want to talk about it.”

“In that position, if I hadn’t seen him, I would have sent him a text saying ‘man, sorry, I was looking elsewhere, you braked hard and it took me by surprise’ or something. But it’s okay, I’ve moved on.”