Max Verstappen comically blasted Daniel Ricciardo for “trying to kill everyone” last weekend, during a karting race at Honda’s annual Thanks Day, held at Motegi.
The iconic Twin Ring Motegi circuit plays host to both Super Formula and MotoGP, whilst it’s also usually used for the special day, where Honda athletes all come together in front of fans.
With Honda being Red Bull’s and AlphaTauri’s powertrain supplier, Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda were present.
Two-time Indy 500 winner and ex-F1 driver Takuma Sato and eight-time MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez were also in attendance.
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One of the activities which takes place at the event is a go-karting race, which is where Ricciardo decided to cause complete chaos.
The Australian driver opted to complete cut a corner, so that he got take Verstappen out at the following turn.
Verstappen dropped to last as a result and joked after the race that his former teammate “decided to be a terrorist”.
“It started off quite well but then Daniel decided to be a terrorist,” Verstappen said, as reported by The Express. “He was literally trying to kill everyone out there.”
It was a brutal way of stopping Verstappen, who only failed to win three times in 2023.
Verstappen was victorious in 19 of the 22 races, which saw him cruise to a third consecutive Drivers’ Championship with ease.
His 575 points would’ve been enough for Red Bull to lift the Constructors’ Championship without requiring Perez’s points, highlighting the Dutchman’s dominance.
After he won the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen thanked Red Bull for the “incredible year” and admitted that it’ll be “very hard” to replicate his 2023 performance.
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“I have to say thanks to everyone at Red Bull it’s been an incredible year. It will be hard to do something similar, but we definitely enjoyed this year,” Verstappen said.
“It will be very hard to have another season like this, we know that. You always want to do better, but doing better is not always race wins and winning the championship.
“We are working hard for next year for a very competitive car. For sure all the other teams want to try and beat us next year, but we are ready for the battle and in the meantime, we’re going to enjoy this year as well.”