Daniel Ricciardo is finally getting back to his mojo, it seems, when the AlphaTauri driver put his car in 4th place on the grid during the Mexican GP qualifying. Daniel has been out of the game for a long time and he is still recovering from his hand surgery. Saturday was the day when Daniel Ricciardo was able to bring forth his A-game.
The AlphaTauri driver had a good tow from his teammate, which helped him breeze his way into Q3 and helped him challenge for a good position on the grid. Daniel had been pushing hard all throughout Q3 and he finally got a huge prize for his efforts.
Horner praises Ricciardo after Mexican GP
Daniel Ricciardo has always had a special place in Red Bull, even after his sudden exit from the team in 2019. Ever since he came back, Red Bull hasn’t spared any effort to make him feel at home. Christian Horner made sure to give Daniel Ricciardo a pat on his back for the amazing performance he showed on Saturday making a huge comeback.
This year hasn’t been the best for Daniel so far, as he had to sit out almost half of the races this season because of his injury. Daniel Ricciardo is also a viable competitor for the Red Bull seat beside Verstappen; as such, it was important for him to show that he still has the same zeal left in him.
Christian praised Daniel immensely when asked about his recent performance. “It is great to see Daniel performing so well and fully endorses the reason why we brought him back into the AlphaTauri,” Horner explained. “I thought he was outstanding this weekend, fighting Mercedes in an AlphaTauri – and if it were not for the red flag, he’d have finished higher up, so it was a great performance and certainly looked like the Daniel of old this weekend.”
“Look at the time delta to Max, it was less than a tenth so a remarkable performance by him. He’s back to his old self, you can see he is relaxed, he’s confident and he came into the weekend fully motivated after a tricky Austin coming back from injury.”
Ricciardo rues missed chance
While Daniel Ricciardo gave his best in the race, fighting much faster in arguably the worst car on the grid, he still was disappointed without a top-five finish. Ricciardo started 7th but finished 5th in the Grand Prix after being unable to fight back the charge of Mercedes and his former team, McLaren. AlphaTauri was in a mood to get a big point haul in Mexico and he showed glimpses of the old ‘Honey Badger’.
“I don’t know if Lando’s pace in that second half of the race was as good as the first half because he was very quick,” Ricciardo told media.
“We were holding Oscar at bay, at least at that moment. I was like ‘This could be a nice, lonely fifth place’ and I was okay with that.”
“So I definitely think we could have been better than seventh, let’s say that, without the red flag. But that’s racing. On one hand, you could say [it was] unlucky but still it can always be worse. The restart, we could have had a crash or something, so to come through, I’m happy.”
Do you think Daniel is a contender for 2024 Red Bull seat now that Perez has crashed out again in the Mexico GP? Let us know your suggestions.
