Daniel Ricciardo clashes with Max Verstappen in Red Bull disaster

The 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix marks seven seasons since one of the most infamous incidents to take place at the Baku City Circuit, when Daniel Ricciardo careered into the back of Max Verstappen in their last campaign as Red Bull team-mates.

It was a contentious incident and ultimately played a significant part in reshaping the Milton Keynes team's future, as the Australian driver decided to leave for Renault at the end of the year.

The 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will forever be remembered as the moment Ricciardo and Verstappen's simmering rivalry boiled over into disaster, costing Red Bull valuable points and creating fractures that would never fully heal.

The crash between the pair did not come out of nowhere. By 2018, Red Bull found itself firmly entrenched as the third-fastest team, consistently battling for fourth and fifth positions rather than victories.

Verstappen arrived in Baku under particular scrutiny, having been involved in incidents at all four preceding races and sitting eighth in the championship with just 18 points.

Meanwhile, Red Bull trailed Ferrari by 59 points in the constructors' standings, despite Ricciardo winning the preceding round in China.

The race itself became a microcosm of their season-long tensions, with both drivers banging wheels and coming precariously close to the barriers as they fought through Baku's narrow confines.

Fatal sequence and aftermath

What happened on the fateful lap 40 remains one of F1's most analysed crashes. The two drivers clashed numerous times in the opening phase of the race as they battled over fourth position.

After Ricciardo had successfully overtaken Verstappen - after multiple moves between them - and gained crucial pitstop priority, a poor out-lap allowed his team-mate to regain position through strategy, setting up another confrontation.

As Ricciardo charged down the main straight with DRS activated, Verstappen began weaving to break the slipstream effect.

In the crucial moments before impact, Ricciardo feinted right before switching left towards Turn 1, but Verstappen's instinctive defensive move in the braking zone proved fatal. Ricciardo slammed into the back of his team-mate, sending both into retirement.

"You lose all downforce and everything. Even the brakes, they lock a lot easier when you don't have the downforce on," Ricciardo later explained, describing how Verstappen's positioning left him as "a passenger" unable to control his car.

Christian Horner's immediate reaction revealed the depth of Red Bull's frustration. "This was the culmination of two guys taking things into their own hands, which shouldn't have happened," he fumed, summoning both drivers to apologise to the entire Milton Keynes workforce before the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen took a diplomatic approach publicly, insisting they didn't "need to speak about who was at fault" and maintaining their relationship remained intact. Both received reprimands from the stewards rather than grid penalties.

However, Ricciardo's private feelings were far more complex. Years later, he admitted: "As soon as I crashed into him, part of me felt, 'you guys deserved this, that was a shitshow'."

He questioned whether Red Bull would have handled the situation differently had roles been reversed, asking: "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?"

The long shadow

Though Ricciardo's shock departure to Renault was not directly attributed to the Azerbaijan crash, the incident clearly contributed to his disillusionment with Red Bull's handling of internal conflicts.

His contract negotiations had stalled, and the Baku collision represented a tipping point in their deteriorating relationship.

Meanwhile, Verstappen's trajectory took a dramatically different path. From that troubled 2018 season, he transformed into one of F1's most dominant forces, capturing four consecutive world championships from 2021 to 2024 and amassing 66 career victories to date.

The contrast couldn't be starker. While Ricciardo struggled through difficult stints at Renault and McLaren before eventually stepping back from full-time competition, Verstappen established himself among the sport's all-time greats, joining the exclusive club of quadruple world champions.

That split-second collision in Baku proved to be more than just a racing incident. It was the moment that reshaped Red Bull's future, ending one partnership while launching another driver towards F1 immortality.