Verstappen says bulls need to be 'less eager' when racing together

Max Verstappen reckons he and team mate Daniel Ricciardo perhaps need to be less enthusiastic when racing each other wheel-to-wheel in the future.

The Red Bull pair caused its own demise in Baku, the drivers' 35-lap tussle ended in tears when Ricciardo rammed into the rear of Verstappen, sending both men into retirement.

While the thrilling battle was a feast for the fans, the young Dutchman was the one who came the most frequently under fire in the media's post-race discussions.

"It was I think good to watch on television," the 20-year-old told Ziggo Sport.

"It's so much easier to judge afterwards and from the outside than when you're driving at 320km/h.

"It doesn't even matter whose fault it is, as teammates you just don't want to crash with each other. Of course the team was not happy about it, but we were not that happy about it either."

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Verstappen said he and Ricciardo will have learned a few lessons from the Baku blunder, but last Sunday's mishap won't deter the young charger from fighting his team mate, if Red Bull continues to allow them that precious freedom.

"Of course, we are going to talk with each other and I think you should just let us race," he said.

"Racing between us does not have to change drastically, but perhaps we should both be a little less eager when we race each other. In my opinion we can do that very well, but unfortunately this time it didn’t end well."

As for the future, Verstappen is keeping his hopes up for its still a long haul to Abu Dhabi.

"There are still seventeen races to go and you can see how quickly things can turn around, so everything is still possible," he added.

"For the next race we have a lot of updates to the car which hopefully take us a bit further ahead. Looking at the data, the updates look positive. It remains to be seen whether this is the case on track, but there will be quite some change."

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