Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon opened their first “fight” as teammates at the Styrian Grand Prix.
The Australian F1 star started on the grid behind Ocon, who switched to Renault this season instead of Nico Hülkenberg, but soon moved to the French within striking distance.
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Ricciardo felt faster and waited for his team to ask Ocon to let the Western Australian pass him. But this call did not come and Ricciardo pulled the trigger himself and overtook his stable mate.
However, the Honey Badger believes that if he hadn’t zoomed past Ocon, Renault would have instructed the drivers to switch positions.
“I asked a general question because I felt like I was being held up by this group (in front),” Ricciardo told Motorsport.com. “So I just said, ‘Look, I’m a lot faster right now. ‘
“So I asked the question and then came over. But I think the call came. If it weren’t for this round, it would come. So it was discussed on the pit wall.
“I think obviously they could see that we both lost time fighting each other. So it was addressed with certainty. “
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It was the first wheel-to-wheel battle between the two as teammates after Ricciardo retired from the Austrian Grand Prix to the season opening with a cooling problem.
“It is the first time that we are going from bike to bike,” said Ricciardo. “Of course, I never wanted to do anything crazy, especially not so early in the race.
“I was obvious, especially after retiring last week and just trying to get a race on board. I wasn’t particularly interested in throwing diving bombs on a teammate too early in the race. “
The same car problem that had paralyzed Ricciardo in the first race of the year ended Ocon’s day in the second, and Renault expressed his frustration with the successive mechanical failures at the start of the season.
While Ocon hardly wanted to get ready on the weekend, he enjoyed his time with Ricciardo as long as it took.
“It was good to race with Daniel,” said Ocon to Motorsport.com. “I have to say it was a very fair fight. We have left other room. It wasn’t too aggressive. And so I really want to compete against my teammate.
“It was a good fight. I was happy with how everything was there. I look forward to many more.
“I think the team’s policy so far has been to have each other race but to drive clean. And that’s exactly what we did. “
After two Grand Prix races, Renault is sixth in the constructors’ standings and doesn’t have much time to fix its mechanical problems before this weekend’s event in Hungary.
Marcin Budkowski, Managing Director of Renault, told Motorsport.com that the problems with the car were “extreme, extremely frustrating and extremely disappointing”.
“We used the same radiators in Barcelona before the season and had no problems,” said Budkowski. “Whether it is the type of thermal cycle of the racetrack, whether it is the famous Spielberg curbs, there is something that we did not understand or we did not recognize.
“We will take more containment measures for the next race, but we are extremely disappointed that we had the same problem twice and lost two chances with each driver.
“So we’re going to look at this very, very carefully again, so all the radiators are on their way back to Enstone to be checked.”
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