Billionaire F1 star refused to text apology to Daniel Ricciardo as rivals remain frosty
Daniel Ricciardo remains unhappy with F1 rival Lance Stroll over their collision in China.
Daniel Ricciardo has been left angered by the lack of an apology from Lance Stroll after the Aston Martin driver ended his race at the Chinese Grand Prix. RB driver Ricciardo fumed after Stroll collided with him in Shanghai, sending him into the McLaren of Oscar Piastri with the damage forcing him into a premature retirement.
Ricciardo was enjoying the best race of a frustrating personal season, threatening to score his first points of the year in ninth before the incident. Stroll, whose father Lawrence is believed to be worth nearly £3billion, has not accepted blame for the flashpoint despite being punished with a 10-second penalty by the stewards.
Two weeks on from the race, Ricciardo claims he has still not heard from Stroll. The 34-year-old is upset over the lack of an apology, saying he would accept Stroll reaching out to him.
Asked if Stroll has apologised, Ricciardo said: “No. I would say no, because I feel it’s not gonna go anywhere. If he texted just saying, ‘Yeah, you know, my bad’, whatever. OK, I can accept an apology.
“I’m not that much of an a***hole. But the fact that there’s not even that, he clearly doesn’t think he did anything wrong. So I guess there’s not much to say.
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“If we sit next to each other tomorrow at the driver’s briefing and he wants to chat, I’m not gonna ignore him or anything.”
Ricciardo insisted that a younger version of himself would have apologised when he felt an accident was his fault. The Australian continued: “Look, when I was younger, maybe I was more stubborn and maybe I didn’t always apologise for something that was my fault.
“But certainly, like the last few years, if I make a mistake or take someone out, or even if it’s like 50/50, I’ll still say ‘Yeah, maybe I could have done better so sorry for ruining our day’.
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“I remember I think it was maybe Kevin (Magnussen) in Brazil (2023) or Yuki (Tsunoda) in Mexico the year before when I was still at McLaren in 2022, I didn’t honestly think I was fully at fault for that one but I still kind of was like ‘Alright, I’ll just text him, clear the air a little bit’.”
Ricciardo was raging after learning that Stroll was not taking the blame for the incident. He said at the time: “I’m doing my best not to say what I want to say. But f*** that guy – and I’m being nice still. But if that’s what he thinks, I’m like, yeah…”
Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, a sheepish Stroll refused to confirm whether he had spoken to Ricciardo since Shanghai, saying: “That’s not for this room. Those things are done behind closed doors.”