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Daniel Ricciardo identified qualifying as an area of improvement for AlphaTauri in an assessment of the seven races he participated in during the 2023 season. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda after the 2023 Abu Dhabi GP, the Australian spoke about his performances this season after the final race of the year.
Arriving in Hungary mid-season, the AlphaTauri team was tenth in the standings with Daniel Ricciardo tasked with helping them finish the season higher up. Despite missing multiple races this season due to a hand injury in Zandvoort, the former Red Bull driver managed to contribute a decent points tally to prop the Faenza squad up to eighth place in the standings. Ricciardo's performance in Mexico was the highlight of his return to the sport after losing his driver's seat following the 2022 season.
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Apart from the standout performance in Mexico, Daniel Ricciardo assessed the weakness of the AT04 saying:
“Yeah definitely. If I look at Brazil and then this race, qualifying was kind of the Achilles heel. And I’ll take some responsibility for that, not maybe putting the best lap together. But then, ok obviously we started a lap down, actually with our pace in the race, we could [have] fought well inside the points. Today if we would have started a few positions up, we would have fought well in the points or something. So obviously these ifs and buts and maybes. The pace is there and it’s obviously about sorting the one lap pace. Other than Mexico and a couple others. But there’s a lot to be encouraged about.”
On whether seventh place in the standings was considered a possibility, Daniel Ricciardo said:
Definitely, I think I wasn’t on board for the first part of the season, but the way the team turned it around. Obviously the updates and I would like to think Yuki and myself, yeah, pushed each other little bit and that was positive for the team. I think there’s a lot that the team kind of can be excited for moving into next year. Of course, seventh would have been nice but few races ago we were talking about not finishing tenth. So seventh was kind of a bonus and yeah it gives us a little bit more to fight for next year.”
Unable to string a good lap together around the Interlagos circuit, Daniel Ricciardo qualified 17th on the grid and finished 13th in the Brazilian GP. Despite starting a lap down, Ricciardo believes they had the pace to challenge for points in Brazil. In Las Vegas, the Aussie qualified 15th and finished fourteenth. Ricciardo outperforming his teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only probable consolation for him on both weekends. However, this was not enough to gather the points AlphaTauri needed to finish above eighth place in the standings. Ricciardo felt that with the way the season started for AlphaTauri till he joined the team in Austin, seventh place would have been a bonus.
Assessing the weaknesses of the AlphaTauri AT04, Daniel Ricciardo felt that qualifying remained their main weakness which cost them points. Starting last in the constructors standings at the beginning of the season, the Australian felt he had lost out on time after missing the first half of the season when Nyck De Vries was a part of the squad. He believes that the car had the race pace to finish well within the points at many races, particularly in Las Vegas and Brazil where they lost out on points thanks to their qualifying performance. However, Ricciardo said the updates post summer break and the final races of the season including Mexico were encouraging for himself and the team.
Daniel Ricciardo is looking forward to getting a head start for the 2024 season
Daniel Ricciardo feels the extra energy he has after not participating in some races in the 2023 season gives him a head start over his counterparts who will be drained after a long and exhilarating season. The AlphaTauri driver felt he had an extra reserve of energy since he had competed in only seven races in 2023. Satisfied with his return to the sport so far, the Australian is itching to go home to Australia and spend time with his family. He was one of the few drivers at the Pirelli test post the Abu Dhabi GP.
When asked about how he seemed to be the only driver who didn’t mind the F1 season carrying on further into 2023, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“No I’m not disappointed in this year. I am like so over it and all I can think about is going home to Australia. But look obviously we don’t race anymore, that's fine. I think I’ll just use this extra kind of energy that I have and obviously the others don’t, to start preseason early and just to get a little bit of a head start on everyone. Yeah come out swinging next year.”
Daniel Ricciardo will be looking forward to his first full season with the AlphaTauri team in 2024. Before the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, the former Red Bull driver admitted cutting down on various PR and non-race-related commitments outside the sport to focus purely on his racing career.
A question asked by Sportskeeda in Austin about Ricciardo's PR and marketing value was reiterated in Abu Dhabi, to which the AlphaTauri driver explained he had reduced his PR activities to focus on a successful return. Ricciardo also asserted that one of the goals of his second stint in the sport was to change the narrative surrounding him and make racing the focus of his reputation.
