Daniel Ricciardo: I would never have 'dive-bombed' Esteban Ocon

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo: I would never have 'dive-bombed' Ocon

The Australian finished eighth, while the Frenchman retired

Ian Parkes

Sunday 12 July 2020 20:56 Updated: 21:03

Daniel Ricciardo is adamant he would not have done "anything too crazy" after going wheel-to-wheel for the first time this season with new Renault team-mate Esteban Ocon.

On different tyre strategies to start the Styrian Grand Prix, with Ricciardo on the medium compound and Ocon running on sorts, as the latter's rubber started to fade, the Australian closed in.

Ocon arguably defended too robustly for a couple of laps before Ricciardo finally surged past with the aid of DRS on lap 19, going on to finish eighth, while the Frenchman retired with a cooling issue.

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Assessing his first taste of going up against Ocon, Ricciardo said: "It's the first time we've gone wheel to wheel.

"If there was a move, I was going, but I wasn't obviously going to do anything too crazy, especially that early in the race, I think because we were on different strategies.

"If I didn't get by him, I honestly was expecting to get a call to swap cars. I think I would have been a little bit surprised if I hadn't have got that, but it was leaning that way anyway."

Referring to his early retirement in last weekend's season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, Ricciardo added: "Especially after last week, I just wanted to try and get a race on board.

"I wasn't too interested in throwing any divebombs too early in the race on a team-mate."

Ricciardo has confirmed to asking the team whether they would implement team orders to enable him to get by, prior to finally making the move of his own accord anyway.

"I asked a bit of a general question as I was, I felt, being held up by that group, so I just said 'Look guys, I'm quite a bit quicker at the moment'. So it's really me asking the question, are we going to swap?" revealed Ricciardo.

"Obviously, we were on different strategies - I was on the medium, Esteban was on the soft. I think that early in the race it's not wise to fight and lose time on a split strategy, so I asked the question.

"I got past, [and] I believe the call was coming. If it wasn't that lap, it was going to come, so it was being discussed on the pitwall. They could see we were both losing time trying to fight each other. It was certainly being addressed."

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