“Everyone was cartwheeling and backflipping”: Daniel Ricciardo emphasizes the importance of his first points finish this season
Daniel Ricciardo believes the Mexican GP result was a huge boost to the team's morale and for him. Scoring his first points of the 2023 season, the Australian felt that two back-to-back weekends of points finishes were worthy of a celebration.
Speaking to media including Sportskeeda after the race, Daniel Ricciardo was elated with the result of his performance at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit. Starting fourth on the grid after a stellar qualifying performance, the former Red Bull driver drove a solid race to finish seventh on the grid in his AlphaTauri. Although he was looking forward to a top-five finish, the red flag hurt his tyre performance making him settle for a seventh.
Asked by Sportskeeda if collecting his first points of the season was a consolation after losing out on a top 5 finish, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“Yeah absolutely. I think after last week, you know Yuki got five points and it was huge, huge for the team. Everyone was cartwheeling and backflipping, so a week later to do six points, I am very happy.”
Further asked by Sportskeeda how much of a mental boost it was for him personally, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“I mean after last week, it’s funny like you can never guarantee a good weekend. I'm not surprised we had a good weekend, because I was just ready for it. I think yeah the direction we went with setup, I knew that would allow me to just kind of have a bit more confidence with the car. So yeah happy. There are still going to be some things to get out of it. You know even in the race, there was my first sector was a little average, I wasn’t consistent there through the chicane so for sure some things I can improve on. But overall very happy with the weekend.”
The Mexico performance, particularly from qualifying, has led many to believe that Daniel Ricciardo is back to his old version of being hungry and competitive again. Reflecting on his performances throughout the weekend, the Australian explained that he expected to be competitive at the high-altitude circuit and wasn’t surprised with his performance. He felt that despite the inconsistency in the race performance, there were a lot of takeaways.
Explaining that the setup was more to his liking and gave him confidence with the car, Daniel Ricciardo is satisfied with the direction of his car. Earlier in the weekend after qualifying, the Australian had explained to the media about the improvements on his car, such as improved corner entry and setup, which allowed him to extract the maximum from it. He believes the AT04 can be set up more to suit his driving which allows him to get back to his old ways of being competitive.
Daniel Ricciardo feels AlphaTauri could catch Williams in the standings if Mexico's momentum continues
Assuming the momentum from the Mexican GP carries forward into the Brazilian GP, Daniel Ricciardo feels snatching seventh from Williams is a potential possibility. Looking forward to the Brazilian GP, the 34-year-old felt confident about the similar car setup that is carried forward from Mexico.
The Interlagos circuit is the second highest in terms of altitude on the calendar, which means the cars would run a similar high downforce setup, a setup that enabled him to find a bit of his old self again. Evaluating the Australian’s performance, Christian Horner was impressed by the former Red Bull driver and felt it was a performance worth praising and a huge confidence boost after the setback from the hand injury.
Asked if AlphaTauri could catch Williams for seventh place in the constructors standings, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“I think if this weekend continues, absolutely. It’s hard, it's hard to know. I mean Brazil is a very different track but it's got altitude but you pretty much run high downforce. So maybe it could help us. Let’s see Vegas, who knows, lot of long straights, so we’ve got to be a little more slippery than what we normally are. I think for Brazil next week, we’ll be pretty Ok.”
Impressed with the performance of Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico, Christian Horner spoke to SkySports saying:
“You couldn't fail to be impressed by Daniel this weekend. I think fighting a Mercedes in an AlphaTauri for their best result of the year was a great performance. Had it not been for the red flag he might have actually finished even further up. He can take a lot of confidence coming back from injury, he's had a rough time over the last couple of months having to sit on the sidelines but that's the Daniel we're used to seeing. His confidence is coming up.”
After the Mexican GP, there has been a lot of speculation about his performance being a good audition for Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat as the Mexican crashed out of the race. Similar to Horner, Ricciardo himself had also felt that if it weren’t for the red flag in the race, a top-five finish was on the cards in Mexico. The Aussie’s performance has propelled AlphaTauri from tenth place in the constructor’s standings to eighth.