What Happened Between Max Verstappen & Daniel Ricciardo in Azerbaijan?

Maxiel was a thing, till it wasn’t. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo became teammates in 2016. And what a fun sight it was to watch. When Daniel played Santa, a very young Verstappen stood next to him in an elf costume and that is how the show ran for a while till we arrived in Baku in 2018. There was a lap 40 collision in the race and everything changed after that. Though the late legend, Niki Lauda said it was 70% Max’s fault, Red Bull begged to differ and probably that preferential treatment towards the prodigal son pushed Daniel to switch bases. But what exactly happened on that Sunday five years ago?

The unforgettable incident between Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in the 2018 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction at Red Bull before the nightmare that unfolded in 2018. A collision on lap 40 during the Azerbaijan GP in Baku saw both drivers bow out. Ricciardo and Verstappen, who were competing for P4, crashed into each other when the former tried to make an overtake.

Verstappen shut the doors on the Australian’s overtake attempt down the inside. To add to the intense situation, Verstappen made another defensive move by under braking after Dany sold him a dummy to try to squeeze around the outside. The disaster saw Horner storm out of the track. Both Red Bulls were out and a lot of tension in the air was what the world witnessed. Perhaps the horror show that came about still haunts the corridors of Milton Keynes.

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The REAL reason Ricciardo fell out with Max Verstappen and Red Bull

While the crash unfolded in front of the world, it was apparent that Mad Max blocked the Honey Badger twice before they crashed into each other. Daniel expressed that the handling of the incident post the crash made him fall out of love with the Austrian team. Ricciardo made a shock move to the then-Renault team the very next year. He admitted to the struggle he faced in moving on from the Azerbaijan GP. He always believed that the team should have reprimanded Verstappen. It couldn’t have been a 50-50 fault situation.

He was so sour with the team for not intervening when he clearly was the faster car. He said he never really felt the same after that. Dany Ric even went on record and told the exact emotions that were going in his head when the crash happened. The following year, speaking to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, he stated, “As soon as I crashed into him, part of me felt, ‘you guys deserved this, that was a shitshow’.”

He further added a question, perhaps which we all know the answer to, and Ricciardo knew it back then as well. He said, “If the roles were reversed, if I’d been in front and moved twice in the braking area and he’d run up the back of me, would things have been handled the same way? It was a question I kept coming back to.”

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“The team treated us as both equally at fault in that situation, where I think deep down they knew that it was their mistake and Max’s mistake. A lot of things didn’t sit well,” said the Australian, highlighting why it was imperative for him to move.

Ricciardo reveals ‘f*** you’ response to Red Bull after Verstappen Baku crash

Usually, when teammates battle it out or are very closely stacked in the race, team orders follow. It is a similar situation to what we have seen in recent times. The team has often asked the Dutchman’s current teammate, Perez, to not fight to keep both cars intact. Verstappen now clearly has established himself as the superior one at Milton Keynes, becoming a two-time world champion. However, things were a lot different half a decade ago.

The young Dany was 20 when he joined the team and had even partnered with the dominant champ, Sebastian Vettel. With the passing of time, the Honey Badger established himself as a rock for the team. Especially after Vettel’s departure to Ferrari. And then to see the team favoring a very young boy who was fast-tracked into F1. The Red Bull duo had wiped each other out in Baku, which probably was a frustrated clap back from Ricciardo, who was annoyed at the team and his teammate. He suddenly felt like an outsider. He said, “few things came up to surface” and he admitted to having crashed in anger.

In Beyond the Grid podcast, the Aussie stated, “I was like, ‘F**k you guys’ because I think everyone saw it coming, you know? And I felt like then it was also very 50-50 where I didn’t believe it was a 50-50, so it was then kind of the days after I guess I was still quite bitter.”

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While Ricciardo is now back at RB, the love perhaps was never lost. However, it won’t be wrong to say that what happened in Baku changed the course of his career.