Helmut Marko finds key difference between the Ocon-Gasly crash and Max Verstappen-Daniel Ricciardo clash in 2018

Red Bull chief Helmut Marko feels that one major difference between what happened between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in Monaco, and the clash between Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in Baku in 2018 is that this isn't the first time the two have clashed. The race in Monaco saw the two Alpine drivers once again involved in a heated battle at the start of the race.

The battle ended with Esteban Ocon trying an opportunistic move just before the tunnel which led to the collision with Gasly. Alpine boss Bruno Famin was furious at his driver and had claimed that there would be consequences for Ocon.

In his column in Speedweek, Helmut Marko touched on the incident and drew parallels with what happened between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in 2018, and between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in 2010.

There was one thing, however, that Helmut Marko points out as different in this particular scenario compared to the ones involving Max Verstappen and that is the fact that this was not the first time these two had come together. Talking about how, since this was not the first occurrence of a collision between the two drivers, Helmut Marko said,

“We’ve had this twice at Red Bull Racing with team-mates getting in each other’s way, once in 2018 with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in Baku, and once with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in 2010 in Turkey. In both cases, we summoned both drivers to the company and discussed it openly with them, making it clear to them that such collisions with team-mates are simply not acceptable."

He added,

"Ricciardo then left us at the end of the season and there were no more such incidents with Webber; they accepted that this was not acceptable. “Measures are difficult to implement in such a case, because you would have to be able to prove clear intent, and that is not the case. The driver then says that he misjudged the accident, which means that there is no longer any intent. The problem with Alpine, however, is that it wasn’t the first time, and I think that adds to the difficulty.”

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What happened between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in 2018?

In 2018, both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were teammates at Red Bull and at the time the two were quite close in terms of performance. At the F1 Azerbaijan GP that season, the two drivers were battling hard with positions changing almost every lap. After Daniel got the jump on Max and was running in clear air, the two once again came together after pit stops.

Red Bull pitted Max Verstappen first and triggered the undercut, which meant Daniel Ricciardo was behind when he pitted. While trying to overtake Max at the end of the straight, both Red Bull drivers collided at the braking point, leading to a double DNF.

The two drivers were taken to the Red Bull base where both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo apologised to the entire team. By the end of the season, however, Ricciardo had called time on his stint with the Austrian team and announced a move to Renault.