SUMMARY
- Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda endured a tough opening race at Bahrain GP.
- Tsunoda was forced to acknowledge team orders which ended up backfiring horribly.
The Bahrain Grand Prix turned out to be one of the most predictable races in recent years with Max Verstappen securing a Grand Slam, with almost nil struggle. And, as icing on the cake, Sergio Perez managed to bring his car home in P2, completing a clinical weekend for Red Bull Racing. But, what happened to its sister outfit, Visa Cash App RB? Well, the newfound sister brand triggered a rift between its two drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.
Heading into the season, Dr. Helmut Marko had made it absolutely clear that Ricciardo needed to defeat his teammate Tsunoda to propel his chances of winning the Red Bull seat. And of course, the same applied to the young Japanese lad as well. Therefore, both Tsunoda and Ricciardo were visibly fighting for position throughout the race in Bahrain.
Yuki Tsunoda is NOT keen for team orders right now 😤#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/oJozZLReZY
— Autosport (@autosport) March 2, 2024
While it was a smooth sail for the majority of the race, VCARB encountered a tricky situation heading into the home stretch of the Bahrain GP. Both Tsunoda and Ricciardo found themselves stuck behind a slower Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
Although the battle wasn’t really for points, the two drivers were desperately trying to lay their dominion over each other. Then arrived team orders, which ended up stirring a saucy exchange on team radio.
What happened between Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo?
After bizarre strategies throughout the race, Tsunoda and Ricciardo found themselves within a second of each other, thanks to a slow-moving Haas in P12. However, the twist here is that Tsunoda was on hard tires while Ricciardo was on soft tires. And hence, almost predictably, VCARB brought out team orders, requesting Tsunoda to let Ricciardo by.
But, what followed was an angry response from Tsunoda, who sounded rather disinterested in acknowledging the team order. “Are you kidding me?” His reaction was quite understandable considering he was barely 0.5s behind Magnussen, and a move was definitely on. But, the untimely call eventually forced Tsunoda to yield his position to Ricciardo.
To make things worse, Verstappen joined the pack and was all set to lap them all. Subsequently, Ricciardo had to acknowledge the blue flags, but, somehow Magnussen managed to build a considerable gap between himself and Verstappen and Ricciardo. Then arrived another radio message from Tsunoda. He said, “He needs to speed up man. He’s not fast at all.”
Tsunoda team radio:
“He needs to speed up man.”
“He’s not fast, at all.”
— formularacers (@formularacers_) March 2, 2024
Ultimately, Ricciardo failed to make the move on Magnussen and yet managed to finish ahead of Tsunoda with the help of team orders. What a feisty start to the season already for the VCARB duo! The two drivers are well aware of their assignments, and if anything, this could be the start of an ugly warfare between the duo this year.