Verstappen must learn from Ricciardo - Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Max Verstappen can learn from team-mate Daniel Ricciardo as he looks to get over his error-riddled start to 2018. A crash between the Red Bull drivers in Baku was a troubling culmination of Verstappen's struggles to start the season.

Verstappen has also been involved in incidents with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, costing himself and the team valuable places and points.

By contrast, although he has also suffered two DNFs, Ricciardo came close to a podium in Australia and took a supreme victory in Shanghai to show Verstappen what could have been.

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With Red Bull looking to vault into the title picture this year, Horner believes Verstappen's excitement has got the better of him so far this year and says he can learn a thing or two from his more experienced colleague.

"Ultimately, he will emerge the other side of this, the most important thing is to learn from mistakes," Horner told Motorsport of Verstappen.

"The start of this season has been tough for him, in many cases it's looked like he's over-eager. I'm extremely confident that he will learn from and recognise his mistakes.

"The other thing he benefits from, or will benefit from, is that his team-mate is very polished and the finished article and obviously at a different stage in his development.

"I think he can and will learn a lot of lessons from Daniel because, even after the incident in Azerbaijan, there is a respect that he has for him.

"Daniel provides a very good and rounded benchmark there."

After their crash in Baku, Horner demanded that both drivers apologise to the entire team at their Milton Keynes base, while motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has warned team orders will be implemented if it is repeated.

Both Verstappen and Ricciardo held their hands up soon after the race and Horner praised their contrition.

"They stood in front of the staff and apologised and they spoke very openly," said Horner.

"We've had a discussion in my office about the incident and they will talk in private about it in order to learn from it.

"Both drivers handled the aftermath to Baku in an exemplary manner, in the way they dealt with the media, they've come here and stood in front of every employee and apologised.

"The best way for them to make up for that is by delivering on track."