#Bills’ Josh Allen stars in ‘Beats by Dre’ commercial with Daniel Ricciardo:
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has continued to see his off-field stardom grow.
So much so, he’s not just a celebrity golfer but he keeps adding to his advertising resume too.
In his latest small-screen hit, Allen stars in an ad for Beats by Dre alongside F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo. It has been highlighted in the past that Allen and Ricciardo are friends outside of the respective jobs and that’s put on display.
Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez were both defended by Daniel Ricciardo after their crashes in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Perez was first to go off with a heavy crash at Turn 8 during Q1 – ensuring he will start no higher than 16th on …
Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez were both defended by Daniel Ricciardo after their crashes in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Perez was first to go off with a heavy crash at Turn 8 during Q1 — ensuring he will start no higher than 16th on Sunday — before Tsunoda (pictured above) ran wide at Turn 5 and was launched into the barrier in Q3. Ricciardo says his RB teammate’s crash was mainly down to the punishing track layout on the outside of that corner, with what he believes were small moments having significant outcomes.
“I have not seen Checo’s yet — I saw the aftermath, but I honestly don’t even know what corner he went off on,” Ricciardo said. “So I haven’t seen that one. I just saw Yuki’s now. So a few of us on Thursday — the few that do a track walk — saw that the edge drops a lot. And we thought if you drop off a wheel there, it’s going to just skateboard and do literally what it did.
“So there’s just no margin for error on that corner. It was a big one. I mean, I saw him get out, so I think he’s OK, but obviously it’s completely destroyed the car. So I don’t think that is the nicest kind of run-off that they’ve created for us.
“Look. we’re pushing, it’s Q3. I’m not making an excuse for Yuki but that corner you just have no margin. You drop a wheel there and it’s game over. So that was that. And then Checo’s, I know that was probably when it was still a little bit damper, and these conditions you’ve got to send it and put it all on the line and small mistakes obviously have big consequences.
“So there’s a lot of pressure on, not only us as Red Bull right now but everyone in that situation. So everyone has moments but when you cross the line sometimes you’re just like, ‘Thank you!’”
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The focus on both drivers was due to speculation surrounding Perez’s future, with Red Bull understood to be set to analyze the situation during the summer break. With Ricciardo himself looking uncertain to remain with RB, he says he had given the next two rounds added importance.
“I haven’t been told anything, but I’ve told myself if I can do it, go fast. You’ve got two races to give it hell. And that’s honestly not even with the idea of moving up, it’s even just trying to lock something in for next year.
“I intentionally came into the weekend telling myself that these two races could be two of the most important of not only my season but potentially my career. They haven’t specifically said anything to me but I’ve said enough to myself.”
For his part, Tsunoda thinks it was a combination of aspects that led to him going off track when on another occasion he could have continued with his lap.
“I felt, ‘Why didn’t it turn?’” Tsunoda said. “I didn’t feel like I was going to run wide there. Probably because I was on the limit in Q3, half of the tire went on the grass, but probably because it was wet it kind of exaggerated it and went wide.
“Until that corner, the lap felt great. I’m sorry because everyone in the team and myself deserve a higher position for all the work we’ve done. The car felt great, and the lap was solid, and I reckon it could’ve put us in a great position for tomorrow.”
Daniel Ricciardo says all drivers feel the pressure of when their seat is being questioned but he believes Sergio Perez has the experience to handle the scrutiny he is currently under. Perez has scored just 15 points across the past six race …
Daniel Ricciardo says all drivers feel the pressure of when their seat is being questioned but he believes Sergio Perez has the experience to handle the scrutiny he is currently under.
Perez has scored just 15 points across the past six race weekends — including the Sprint in Austria — and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has stated that the team needs to see an upturn in form before the summer break. Ricciardo has also had an inconsistent season but as an RB driver has been linked with Perez’s spot, and he says both of them have to solely focus on the driving aspect of the job and not the speculation around their futures.
“I guess it depends how we are spotlighted in the media, but the truth is every driver is under pressure and, even the ones that are killing it, there is then pressure for them to keep performing,” Ricciardo said. “So my point is we all feel it.
“Obviously I’ve been in the spotlight a bit this year, Checo’s in the spotlight… Even after my good race in Montreal, I said, ‘Look, I need to do another good one because you’re only as good as your last race,’ and one good weekend doesn’t quite let you off the hook. It temporarily does, but then it can quickly change.
“So look, yes, of course, I know, I’ve seen some statistics: Max [Verstappen] has scored a lot more points than Checo. And of course, yes, they are expecting a bit more, but this is the sport — it’s what we’re in. We feel it all the time. It’s just who is the spotlight of the week.
“It’s up to us to obviously try to shut it out and it’s not easy. Sometimes if everyone is always asking you questions about ‘you have this, you have that’ and it feels sometimes very negative or can feel heavy.
“But I think in my experience — and I put Checo here as well because he’s also been in Formula 1 a similar amount of time — we have dealt with it enough that I think you learn just to realize to focus on the engineering, focus on the car setup, and the rest, yeah, you hear it but you just have to roll with it.”
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While Ricciardo feels the scrutiny can be tough to handle when drivers are being asked about their performances with regularity, he also says it’s an understandable byproduct of the job of being an elite athlete competing in a series with just 20 race seats.
“Yes, it can feel relentless, and obviously I experienced it a bit at McLaren … those media sessions, they’re not exactly enjoyable. So, you’d be lying if you said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t bother me,’ or take a little bit away, but you have to accept that and try to then just deal with it.
“So, as I said, it’s part of it. I always try to be like the bigger person in terms of, ‘Yep, it’s what I signed up for, I’m trying to be the best in the world at something and at times I’ll probably fall short and this is now what’s going to come with it.’ So it’s like you make your own bed and you just have to be OK laying in it sometimes if the sheets aren’t made.
Daniel Ricciardo says scathing comments from Jacques Villeneuve at the Canadian Grand Prix made his fifth-place qualifying performance all the sweeter. Villeneuve is a pundit with Sky Sports at this weekend’s race and questioned Ricciardo’s place on …
Daniel Ricciardo says scathing comments from Jacques Villeneuve at the Canadian Grand Prix made his fifth-place qualifying performance all the sweeter.
Villeneuve is a pundit with Sky Sports at this weekend’s race and questioned Ricciardo’s place on the grid on Friday, saying his image has kept him in the sport over his results and asking: “Why is he still in F1? Why?
“We’re hearing the same thing now for the last four or five years. ‘We have to make the car better for him, poor him.’ Sorry, it’s been five years of that. No, you’re in F1, maybe you make that effort for a Lewis Hamilton, who’s won multiple championships, you don’t make that effort for a driver that can’t cut it. If you can’t cut it, go home; there’s someone else to take your place.”
While Ricciardo insists he didn’t know the exact comments that were made but only that Villeneuve had been critical, prior to his top five qualifying result in Montreal.
“I still don’t know what he said, but I heard he’s been talking s**t,” Ricciardo said. “But he always does. I think he’s hit his head a few too many times. I don’t know if he plays ice hockey or something. Anyway, I won’t give him the time of day, but… all those people can suck it! I want to say more, but it’s alright. We’ll leave him behind.”
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Speaking to SiriusXM later on, Ricciardo admitted the timing of his qualifying display was particularly satisfying given the comments.
“Yeah, it’s nice… It’s nice to deliver a few ‘eff yous.’ That’s the icing on the cake. It’s obviously nice to shut some people up, but obviously it’s just for me. I know what I’m capable of and I think it’s just frustrating I haven’t been able to get it out of myself.
“You’re always trying to fine-tune the car for sure, but I take a lot of accountability. After Monaco we tried to just put everything on the table and clean a few things up and we had a lot of good energy coming into this weekend, so I’m very happy and a good time for people to talk s**t.”
Ricciardo believes a blunt debriefing session with his RB team after the last race in Monaco helped give him a better chance of carrying his strong performance into Sunday.
“After Monaco, it was a weekend where I was a bit down, probably emotionally after not doing well on a track that I obviously love,” he said. “Everyone around me, the team, engineers, my inner circle as well, I was like, ‘Guys, open book, constructive criticism, give it to me — what do you think I can clean up? Where do you feel I’m maybe missing something?’
“A lot of it was kind of just probably management, like energy management over the course of the weekend. It’s not even what I’m doing in the car, it’s what gets me into the car feeling like I’m…ready to go.
“It was just trying to clean up some of those things, and if there was anything on my mind, try and just get it off my chest. I just got into this weekend feeling certainly a bit lighter and just hungry and happy and ready to say ‘eff you’ to all the people!”
Daniel Ricciardo used the experience of his tough spell at McLaren to remain calm in the early part of this season as results took a while to come with RB. The Australian was replaced one year before the end of his McLaren contract and sat out the …
Daniel Ricciardo used the experience of his tough spell at McLaren to remain calm in the early part of this season as results took a while to come with RB.
The Australian was replaced one year before the end of his McLaren contract and sat out the first part of 2023 as a Red Bull reserve, before returning to AlphaTauri at midseason. After the team rebranded as RB, Ricciardo struggled to match teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the first four rounds but a more encouraging performance with a new chassis in China was followed by an excellent fourth in the Miami Sprint, and Ricciardo says the McLaren experience had an impact on his reaction.
“I think, because I’ve been through that, and with hindsight and all of that, the tough times were important,” Ricciardo told RACER. “I look back at some of the McLaren times and that’s why having some time off last year was so important because there were things I was telling myself, ‘IF I get back into F1, IF I get a seat again, make sure I remember these things I learned from all this stuff and don’t fall back down some of these traps.’
“That was my fear with the first few races of this year, because I felt good, I felt confident — I felt completely fine. I wasn’t second guessing myself. For sure, I was confused sometimes why we didn’t have the pace, but I wasn’t looking kind of like, ‘Oh wow, have I have I lost it? Is my time up?’ It was just so important, because I was worried that the team would start panicking so to speak.
“So I was just dialing it home to them like, ‘Guys, trust me, we’re good. Let’s just stay on course, let’s not go crazy. Let’s not listen to too much and not receive feedback from everyone. We’re good — it’ll make sense soon.’
“Definitely some experience helped with that. You can’t obviously control the narrative everywhere but at least with myself and with my engineer, it was so important that we just stayed tight. And I’ve kind of blocked out a few of the things that don’t matter.”
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It was a similar mentality that Ricciardo took after the Miami Grand Prix itself, as he followed his impressive Sprint performance with a Q1 exit in qualifying and 15th place in the race. The 34-year-old says an understanding of the car’s strengths and weaknesses show how crucial qualifying is going to be this season.
“It’s not the same when we’re in traffic. I was able to use the pace and have a clear track and use the downforce and the grip of the car, but in battles and with dirty air we struggle,” he said.
“It just goes back to qualifying — it’s so important. I was upset with the grip I had on that set of tires [in qualifying in Miami], but I’ll always look at myself as well and I could have still done a little bit better here and there, so I still hold myself accountable for the sessions like that.
“We know we’re quick, but we’re not quick enough to start at the back and chop through the field. We’re simply not, so we need to qualify better.”
Pointless, lagging behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the 2024 head-to-head, and with expectations having been so high, Daniel Ricciardo entered the Miami weekend with the pressure mounting. The signs had been better in China, but misfortune meant the …
Pointless, lagging behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the 2024 head-to-head, and with expectations having been so high, Daniel Ricciardo entered the Miami weekend with the pressure mounting.
The signs had been better in China, but misfortune meant the result hadn’t followed, so you might have expected him to be a bit tense on arrival in Florida.
Not a bit of it, as we sat down to talk about his state of mind and he had a beaming smile on his face after nailing an NFL drill that was right in Ricciardo’s wheelhouse.
“God bless America!” he drawls. “I do love it. I mean, even 30 minutes ago, I was catching footballs in the paddock. So I feel like we tend to only do some of that stuff here. Which is just little things, but I really like it. I love sports in the States. Yeah, just the food… It’s all just good. I’m a sucker for this sort of stuff. I love it.”
And on the whole, America loves him. Ricciardo was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” as a central character in the first season. With Mercedes and Ferrari absent, Red Bull and Ricciardo really leaned into the documentary, as his decision to eventually leave the team played out.
Heading to Renault in 2019, while he rarely had a race-winning car from that point onwards, Ricciardo was on a clear trajectory in the USA as a more recognizable star and one who spends so much of his time here. And even through his McLaren struggles, attention came his way.
“I haven’t made it my sole mission to be like, ‘I need to get America on my side’ and all that, but I think just me naturally, really enjoying it out here, and being a sport fan and being a bit of like a sports nerd in a way, I’m just embracing it and soaking it in,: he says. “I think my personality kind of comes out when I’m in interviews and most topics, I think people can relate, and they’re like, ‘Oh, he likes our sort of things as well.’
“That’s cool, and so then they become maybe naturally a bit curious about what I do. Obviously, I speak about Formula 1 with a lot of enthusiasm, and I’m just happy to share it with more people. And I think I know how big sport is in America. So you just get a little bit of interest, and it has so much potential. The sky’s the limit here.
“So, probably a little bit of recognizing that. But ultimately, it’s just trying to show off a sport that I love and I think fans can relate to probably a little bit of my goofiness.”
That relationship with the U.S. fan base has brought many opportunities to do things outside of Formula 1, further enhancing both his brand and his bank account. But in response to being dropped by McLaren, Ricciardo has actually given up some of those activities over the past 12 months, to try and strike the right balance between off-track and his work behind the wheel.
“At the end of the day, it’s about getting that balance,” he says. “Ultimately, if you’re doing things that you enjoy doing, then they are less taxing on you. So if it’s still maybe doing events or some PR stuff that is fun for me, then it will feel a little bit less of a carry. But we also can’t do everything and even now I frickin’ wanted to play football for an hour! But it’s: ‘OK, remember that you do have a weekend ahead of us, so don’t get carried away — conserve some energy.’
“I frickin’ wanted to play football for an hour!” Ricciardo admitted after his Miami scrimmage. “But it’s: ‘OK, remember that you do have a weekend ahead of us, so don’t get carried away — conserve some energy.’” Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
“I’m still a kid and I think that probably got me maybe too excited at times. But I think just the perspective of losing my job ultimately at the end of ’22 and not having a guaranteed way back in. I think then it just made me rethink how I work.
“[I decided] I would change my approach a little bit. And if I did get a chance again, just to make sure that I fulfilled every part of that first and foremost, and didn’t get too caught up in the other stuff. It’s not that I ever took it for granted, but I was just maybe not always prioritizing it the way I would have as a young, hungry 17-year-old kid, and that’s what I wanted to get back to.”
Nearly 35, it wasn’t a simple decision for Ricciardo to turn down some of the offers that came his way more recently because there are no guarantees he will have a seat in F1 much longer. But when he found that once he gave himself the room to focus more on fitness and racing, the motivation to perform to his potential grew even stronger.
Miami would have been one of the most hectic and draining weekends outside of the car had Ricciardo taken up every approach that came his way in the past, but a better balance would go on to help the Australian score his first points of the year with an outstanding fourth place in the Sprint. It was a result that vindicated the evolution of where his priorities are, even if Ricciardo had already realized how important it was for him adjust his commitments.
“I think it was really first and foremost, probably being more selective of the things I do,” he explains. “So yes, I’m still doing stuff off-track, and whether it’s like Enchanté — the clothing brand — I have a good team around me, which helps, but it’s something that I love and I enjoy, and it’s not like I’m stressed about it.
“It’s fun things, you know — we’re receiving new designs, and we’re changing this and that. So that’s a light carry and something that I would call a good distraction for me. But then obviously, there is the way the sport is now. Where do you draw the line?
After the extracurricular fun, Ricciardo locked in on the task at hand in Miami. Clive Mason/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
“We’re very fortunate to have so many opportunities in front of us that yes, it’s tempting to take a lot of them. But it’s just like, where do I draw the line? And ultimately, what do I want my off-weeks to look like when I’m not at the track? How much do I value my rest, my recovery, my training, and these are things that I probably just neglected a little bit.
“Then having the time off last year, I got back into a routine, I started training again, like a lot, and I just fell back in love with those things. And I was like, ‘This is what I need to give me that longevity … this is what I need to feel re-energized.’
“So I was like, make sure I don’t neglect this. If I can do some extracurriculars here and there, sure. But this is my core, and I can’t mess with this.”
Daniel Ricciardo says his top four finish in the sprint let him put a “couple of middle fingers up” to critics even though he then dropped out in Q1 at the Miami Grand Prix. The Australian had a strong sprint qualifying session on Friday to secure a …
Daniel Ricciardo says his top four finish in the sprint let him put a “couple of middle fingers up” to critics even though he then dropped out in Q1 at the Miami Grand Prix.
The Australian had a strong sprint qualifying session on Friday to secure a spot on the second row and actually ran third ahead of Sergio Perez for a spell before holding off Carlos Sainz for fourth. Although he then struggled in qualifying for the grand prix and will start last on Sunday due to a grid penalty from China, Ricciardo says the sprint result was a significant one.
“It’s so nice to fight at the front of course but then to be just holding for what we know are faster cars, it feels like a statement,” Ricciardo said. “It’s nice. It’s nice to still have that dog in me; it’s cool. A lot of people like to talk s**t so it’s nice to [put a] couple of middle fingers up, subtly.
“The first few races everything that kind of could have gone wrong did go wrong, so we had a little bit of a sniff yesterday and I feel like we capitalized on that. So this morning as well, the start was good, everything was going well, and I just felt like it was time to capitalize, and make some noise.
“Here we are four hours later starting last for tomorrow! Honestly the weekend has still been good. This afternoon we’ll look into it; it’ll probably dictate the rest of our weekend but I don’t think it’s a reflection of our weekend. It’s still been really positive, would love to be out there in Q3 with Yuki [Tsunoda] but we’ll try and understand it for tomorrow.”
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Ricciardo acknowledges it is tough to go from the high of the sprint to the low of qualifying, but cited the struggles of Lando Norris on Friday evening as a similar example of where a driver feels like there’s a surprising lack of grip that renders them helpless.
“I am [disappointed],” he said. “I feel like it was one of those ones where I don’t think we could have done anything in terms of I didn’t have the grip starting the lap. I generally felt like Lando how he felt yesterday in SQ3. I don’t know what he said afterwards, but I saw his lap and he went pretty much a second slower on that soft. You could see him sliding already from the exit of Turn 1 and it was a mess, and that’s honestly how I felt.
“It didn’t feel like that second set of tires give me typically what it should with a new soft, so I felt like we were a little bit kind of handicapped. Obviously we don’t have an answer why, I’m not sure if Lando had an answer yesterday, but I felt his pain.
“That’s frustrating, but it’s not like we changed the car and changed something different and were like, ‘We shouldn’t have done that.’ The first set was fine. There was, as always, some time to find and I felt like it was definitely quite easy to find on that second set even with a new set of tires and track [evolution] and a bit less fuel.
“The lap time’s there in the car, I simply just don’t really know what happened with that second set of tires. It’s kind of a [bad] thing to say because there are no facts behind it, but you feel it when it doesn’t give you what you want, so that’s where the frustration lies.”
Daniel Ricciardo says he was surprised to be on the second row for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix after hitting the wall twice on his way to fourth place in qualifying. The RB driver has yet to reach the final part of qualifying in either a full …
Daniel Ricciardo says he was surprised to be on the second row for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix after hitting the wall twice on his way to fourth place in qualifying.
The RB driver has yet to reach the final part of qualifying in either a full session or sprint event so far this season, but outqualified teammate Yuki Tsunoda for the first time in China last time out. Backing that up with fourth place in sprint qualifying in Miami, Ricciardo says he wasn’t expecting to be so high on the grid after his lap, having touched the wall on multiple occasions during the session.
“I [obviously] feel really good about it,” Ricciardo said. “It was just a good session. The Q1, run one — the first lap — I actually made a mistake so we were putting ourselves under a bit of pressure, but I found a good lap, and then Q2 I think we kind of built up from there.
“All of us… I was speaking to Max [Verstappen] just now and he was saying he was quite surprised to be P1 with his lap, and I was saying with mine I was surprised to be P4. The soft [tire] — I expected a bit more from it, but it didn’t really give that much more than the medium, so I think we were expecting everyone to go a lot quicker, but they didn’t.
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“So happy with the second row; it’s awesome. I touched the wall…both laps as well, so I told the team I was definitely trying to get everything out of it. I don’t know if that made me quicker or not, but we were going for it and I had some good comfort in the car.”
Ricciardo — who has been using a new chassis from China onwards — is confident he can turn the starting position into a point-scoring result on Saturday, and is aiming higher than just holding on in the top eight.
“I’d love to be more than eighth, for sure. I’d love to get a few points from it so we’ll see what happens. I experienced it in Mexico, but just starting at the front, it’s a lot nicer than being 12th, 13th.
“Obviously it’s logical, but just from a Turn 1 [perspective] — first lap, being involved in a bit of chaos, obviously staying a bit cleaner at the front is always like a breath of fresh air. I’m sure the second row will help our cause in getting some points.”
RB team principal Laurent Mekies has been seeing clear improvements from Daniel Ricciardo over the past two races despite another frustrating outing for the Australian in the Japanese Grand Prix. Ricciardo has yet to score a point this season and …
RB team principal Laurent Mekies has been seeing clear improvements from Daniel Ricciardo over the past two races despite another frustrating outing for the Australian in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Ricciardo has yet to score a point this season and retired on the opening lap of the race at Suzuka when he was involved in a collision with Alex Albon. Yuki Tsunoda qualified 10th and scored the final point at his home race, but the fact Ricciardo had been one place behind his teammate and also showed strong performance over a race distance in Australia is giving Mekies (pictured at left, above, with Ricciardo) confidence.
“Things are improving with Daniel a lot, already from Australia,” Mekies told SpeedCity Broadcasting. “Even though he did a race from the back — a very frustrating race from the back — but we’ve seen on his pace that the pace was there, so it gave us great confidence. [In qualifying] he was obviously right there as well for the top 10 together with Yuki, so it is a positive.
“Of course no driver wants to lose time in the car, and we know that every second counts and matters … but I’m sure he will be 100% in China. These sort of things happen. He has been around long enough to know that what matters is the speed, and he has the speed.”
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Television cameras regularly cut to reserve driver Liam Lawson after action involving Ricciardo at Suzuka, but Mekies doesn’t believe the presence of Lawson is having a negative impact on the race drivers.
“There is always pressure, at this level, for an F1 driver,” he said. “The whole field is the same up and down the grid — there will be huge pressure. It doesn’t matter so much if the reserve driver is here or not. We have a very good reserve driver with Liam — he has shown last year how impressively he could step in — but I really don’t think it’s adding any pressure on the guys.
“The highest pressure is the one they put on themselves to perform at the highest level at all times, and that’s probably what is driving them most.”
Daniel Ricciardo says he was trying to leave space for a car even though he didn’t see Alex Albon as the pair crashed heavily at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix. Albon was attempting to pull alongside Ricciardo out of Turn 2 on the opening lap …
Daniel Ricciardo says he was trying to leave space for a car even though he didn’t see Alex Albon as the pair crashed heavily at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Albon was attempting to pull alongside Ricciardo out of Turn 2 on the opening lap of the race, but the Australian — starting on mediums and with a pace disadvantage to those on softs — had Lance Stroll to his left. With Ricciardo moving towards the outside of the track before the left-handed Turn 3, Albon tried to back out of the move but his left front made contact with Ricciardo’s right rear. Both cars hit the tire wall heavily, causing a red flag.
“We definitely got gobbled up on that medium,” Ricciardo said. “It was weird because the cars in front of us look like they got off the line well. I guess [George] Russell — and pretty sure everyone in front — was on the medium. So it just looks like Yuki [Tsunoda] and I didn’t have the grip that we anticipated.
“As soon as we launched, I could see [Valtteri] Bottas and [Nico] Hulkenberg just split us and go around. Then into Turn 1, I was in the middle, I think with Yuki and an Alpine sling by. Turn 2 I thought, ‘All right, let’s just settle’ and I soon as I got on the throttle, I was still struggling.
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“Then I think Stroll was on my outside, so I was trying to hold him off. Then I guess as I started to come back for Turn 3, Albon’s there. I watched his onboard, and I don’t even know if he wanted to be there, but his traction was so much better on the soft that he was like, ‘Well, there’s space,’ until there wasn’t, so I didn’t see him.
“But honestly, I always assume maybe someone is there — it’s lap 1 so I never try to use the full width of the track and be completely ignorant. But yeah, I guess there was obviously not enough room.
“All things considered, if we could wind back the clock an hour, I would start on the soft. But for the record, I wanted to be on the medium. That’s not something I fought against. But knowing what we know now the soft would have been a lot better for us.”
The stewards investigated the collision after the race and opted to take no further action, given how many cars were a factor in the incident and the fact it was on the opening lap of the race.
“On the approach to Turn 3, the driver of Car 3 [Ricciardo] noticed Car 18 [Stroll] on his left and stated that he wanted to give that car sufficient room,” the stewards’ decision read. “He stated he then looked to the apex of Turn 3. He did not see Car 23 [Albon] on his right.
“The driver of Car 23 stated that he thought he could overtake Car 3 on the outside, into Turn 3, but then suddenly realized that Car 3 had not seen him, applied the brakes but could not avoid the contact with Car 3.
“Accordingly we determine this to be a first lap incident and decide to take no further action.
“If this incident had occurred on a subsequent lap, or without the presence of the third car (Car 18), a different determination would have been made.”
