Ricciardo offers olive branch to Stroll following China collision

Daniel Ricciardo is unsure what the effect of any clear-the-air talks with Lance Stroll would achieve following their Chinese Grand Prix collision.

In Shanghai, as the safety car was coming into the pits, the field bunched up at the Turn 14 hairpin, with Stroll being caught off guard in the Aston Martin and ramming the RB of Daniel Ricciardo ahead.

In turn, Ricciardo hit the McLaren of Oscar Piastri as both Australians sustained severe diffuser damage, with Ricciardo eventually retiring.

Post-race, he was furious with Stroll's claim that it was the eight-time grand prix winner at fault, saying "fuck that guy" when Stroll's comments were put to him.

The stewards issued Stroll an in-race penalty for the collision, as he also retired, but two weeks on in Miami, Ricciardo does not believe talks will help to soothe the situation.

"I'm in a better mood because we're back at a race-track again, and I was super frustrated, any DNF is super frustrating, but of course, that one was even more frustrating," Ricciardo told media includingRacingNews365.

"I would say no because it is not going to go anywhere, like if he takes it and just says: 'Sorry, my bad', I can accept that apology because I'm not that much of an arsehole, but the fact that he clearly doesn't think he did anything wrong shows there's not too much to say.

"Look, obviously if we sit next to each other tomorrow in the drivers' briefing, and he wants to chat, I'm not going to ignore him or anything."

A sign of maturity

Ricciardo was also caught up in a first-lap collision at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he collided with the Williams of Alex Albon, putting both cars out of the race.

He also cited a collision with now team-mate Yuki Tsunoda at the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix as evidence of how he would treat a similar situation.

"Like when I was younger, maybe I was more stubborn and didn't always apologise for maybe something that was my fault, but over the past few years, if I make a mistake or take someone out, even if it is 50-50, I'll say: 'I'm sorry for ruining our race, like with Kevin [Magnussen] in Brazil or with Yuki [Tsunoda] in Mexico when I was at McLaren in 2022," he said when asked by RacingNews365 if he was a 'clear the air' type of driver.

"I didn't think I was at fault for that one, but I was still kind of like: 'Alright, I'll just text him to clear the air' and from my side, we're all rivals, but you don't need or want to have a target on your back, you don't need enemies.

"I'm not going as far as saying he's an enemy or anything, it's just an incident and we'll move on, but it's more like you don't want to get what you're given.

"I'm not directing it at him, but it's my approach and of course, if I've got on-track stuff with someone, then yeah let's run it out and see what happens, but this doesn't need to be anything.

"In this position, if I didn't see him, I would have [texted] and say: 'Hey man, sorry I was looking somewhere else, you braked hard and it just caught me off guard' or whatever, but it's fine, I've moved on."