Ricciardo & Verstappen avoid Barcelona team orders

Daniel Ricciardo has confirmed that he and Max Verstappen will not be subject to team orders at the Spanish Grand Prix after their race-ending collision in Azerbaijan. Dr Helmut Marko has threatened the pair with neutralised racing conditions if they are involved in a similar incident.

A potential double podium in Baku went up in smoke as a race-long duel between the Red Bull drivers ended with Ricciardo rear-ending a weaving Verstappen into turn one - scene of three previous near-misses between them.

The drivers also came to blows at last year's Hungarian Grand Prix - an incident that ended Ricciardo's race on the first lap.

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After a contrite reaction to the incident, Ricciardo says the drivers have convinced the team to let them go at full pelt once again in Barcelona.

"I told the team I want to race, so I don't want that we just follow each other for 60 laps. But we're not going to have team orders," Ricciardo said.

"But if we find ourselves battling too hard or losing time to the others, especially if there is maybe a faster car coming through, then I think the team would step in a bit more before we started banging wheels again."

Verstappen added on the matter: "If maybe you see Baku again, I think at one point the team will maybe tell us to calm down a bit and just follow each other in the last few laps.

"But in general, I think they still trust us. We also understand that we don't want that to happen again."

Ricciardo and Verstappen were ordered to Red Bull's Milton Keynes base to apologise to the whole team, and the Austrlaian says the debrief has helped everyone understand what went wrong in Baku.

"The team normally do a debrief after every race, and they postponed it so both Max and me were there in England. We sent our apologies and told them that it won't happen again," Ricciardo said.

"We all talked about it. From all different points of views, from what the drivers could have done better, Max and myself, what the team could have done better, Christian and the decision makers on the pit wall, what the engineers could have done better or different.

"Everyone was involved in the process. We had some long discussions. Obviously we are the drivers and we created in the end the incident. That was an accumulation of events, and it was important to address all areas.

"I don't think it was just us in that moment. There was a build-up and maybe a way that we could have responded better."