It's Been One Day and There's Already Drama at Red Bull's Second Team

Early tension is already building at Red Bull’s second team, known as RB or the Racing Bulls. Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo who are both only contracted through the 2024 season found themselves neck and neck at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

While battling for the 12th position, and no points, Tsunoda was told to let Ricciardo pass. Ricciardo was on soft tires and the team believed that he would have a better chance of making a move on Kevin Magnussen.

Ricciardo was not able to capitalize on the position he gained due to the team order and Tsunoda was upset that he had to give up his position.

This boiled over after the checkered flag and Tsunoda served toward his teammate on the cool-down lap, not hitting the other RB car but making his presence known.

“What the f**k?, Ricciardo reacted strongly on the radio.” I’ll save it. He’s a f***ing helmet.”

For those that don’t use UK or Australian slang, a helmet is a term used to refer to an individual who is being dim or has no reason to contribute their opinion.

One could interpret this as Ricciardo saying that Tsunoda doesn’t deserve a seat at the table. As the two battle against each other, there are larger forces at play as Liam Lawson eyes a 2025 seat in the Red Bull system or potentially sooner.

After the race, Tsunoda was asked how he felt about being asked to let Ricciardo pass and while continuing to show his frustration highlighted that it's still very the majority of the season at play.

“Well in the end he didn’t overtake as well," Tsunoda said, "He just had clean air and a better pace and obviously, I was stuck behind Magnussen, I was just about to overtake. It’s the first race, still a lot of things to understand, we were not [in] any way fighting for the points. We’ll see how it goes.”

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