BAKU, Azerbaijan -- After Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo took each other out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he will sit both drivers down and discuss whether they are still allowed to race each other freely ahead of next month's Spanish Grand Prix.
The collision resulted in a double DNF for the team and turned the race on its head with 12 laps remaining. Once the dust had settled, Horner said both drivers were to blame and would be made to apologise to the team for the lost points and damage to the two cars.
When he was asked if his drivers would still be free to race at the upcoming rounds, Horner said: "We will discuss it prior to Barcelona but we want to continue to allow the drivers to race. They have to ensure if they are going wheel-to-wheel they allow each other enough space."
Verstappen believes it would be the wrong approach to bring in team orders preventing the two teammates from racing.
"We lost a lot of points today unnecessarily," he said. "I don't think we need to speak about whose fault, because at the end of the day we're racing for the team. We're representing other people. When this happens it's just not good for both of us.
"We were always very close to each other. I think before that it was hard racing but fair. We gave each other space. We had a little brush of the wheels, but in racing that can happen. What happened afterwards was not good.
"I think you learn from it. Of course we have to make sure it does not happen again. I don't think letting us not race anymore is the way forward, but of course we will talk about it and see what happens. As racing drivers we go for every inch, and of course you're not happy when you collide together as teammates."
Ricciardo said he was "heartbroken" for the team following the incident.
"I guess the situation is that we are thankful we are allowed to race especially, I think myself and Max we love to race as we show so that's cool and we did get close a few times in the race already touching and that so sometimes we on the limit and then unfortunately it ended how it did. It's not a nice situation. I think we both feel pretty bad that it ended like that and for the team it's just pretty crappy.
"As far as the incident itself, it's a tough one, I will let you guys and fans and that to have their comments. I think the thing is once I come out, I thought the gap was opening up on the inside, once I was there I had to commit to that but yeah... let's say heartbroken for how everyone is feeling in the team right now."