“There’s certainly some inner confidence”: Daniel Ricciardo vows to ‘do better’ in the upcoming Mexican F1 GP after a tough outing at Austin

Daniel Ricciardo is satisfied with his return in Austin, despite the disappointing outcome in the 2023 US Grand Prix. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda, the Australian felt the sprint weekend and race helped him build confidence, especially after his hand injury.

Having broken a metacarpal bone in Zandvoort which necessitated surgery, Daniel Ricciardo returned to the sport at the USGP after a four-race break. The Australian was on par with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the practice sessions and was able to outperform him in the sprint race. Unfortunately, he picked up damage to his floor midway through the race, which nullified his chances of collecting his first F1 points in the 2023 season.

Asked by Sportskeeda if he was satisfied with his first weekend upon return, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Elements, yes, like for sure there's things which I take confidence from obviously like some race fitness, the hand, a few things which even just getting behind the wheel in FP1 everyone like lap 1, I felt like I was able to push and lean on it. So there's certainly some inner confidence in that. But I would say in race conditions, yeah. Next week I'll do better.”

Returning to his favorite F1 venue, the Australian added:

“Just being back in Austin and having it as the venue for comeback. Yeah, it is. It's, um, part of me because I love this place so much. It sucks when I don't have a good race here, because I obviously want to, I think even (they do), I think probably the hardest thing today was once we put the hard on and picked up the damage we were so slow that we weren't really in the fight, therefore not really able to fight. So even kind of that, like, elbows out. It was not really, there wasn't really a situation where it made a whole lot of sense to (fight). Yeah, I don't know. I would have loved to put up more of a fight. But anyway, hopefully the others did. But I guess my point is, it would have been nice to have a more attacking race as opposed to just going backwards. Obviously we have our reasons for that. But yeah it would have been nice to have more fortune around here.”

Elated to return to the sport at one of his favorite venues on the calendar, Daniel Ricciardo felt the weekend gave him the confidence to race in terms of driving as he recovered from his injury. Due to the damage sustained to his car in the race, the 34-year-old driver wished he could perform better. Lamenting at being limited with the damage on his car, the Aussie wished he could have been able to have a more attacking race and move up the grid.

Picking up damage around lap 45, Daniel Ricciardo’s pace seemed to drop off significantly. While he wasn’t able to be as competitive on the hard tire as he was on the medium, the damage made it worse. In an unusual pitstop at lap 49, AlphaTauri pitted the Perth-born driver to fix the damage and switch him to a set of soft tires. Rejoining the grid one lap down, the maximum he managed was to bring down the gap to 8 seconds from the car ahead and clock a few of the fastest laps. The fastest lap would have not counted for the much-needed point if he was running outside the top 10. His team eventually pitted Tsunoda on the final lap, which gave him an extra point for clocking the fastest lap of the race along with his eighth-place finish.

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Daniel Ricciardo believes skipping the 2023 Qatar GP was the right decision

Despite wanting to return earlier to the grid, Daniel Ricciardo was replaced by Liam Lawson as he recovered from his hand injury. While Singapore was a physically demanding circuit, the sprint weekend and weather conditions in Qatar were considered the toughest in 2023. Speaking to the media ahead of the USGP race, the former Red Bull driver felt not racing in Qatar was the correct decision until he was completely confident.

Asked if skipping the Qatar GP was the right decision, Daniel Ricciardo replied:

“Yeah, definitely. Definitely, I think that extra break gave me the confidence to push to hit a curb. My biggest fear was coming back and, you know, making excuses. And then like the team's upset, I'm upset. No, no one wins. So happy with the approach.”

Most of the drivers on the grid suffered from the heat and exhaustion of the weekend, and for Daniel Ricciardo with his injury, it would have been worse. While the AlphaTauri driver feels he is confident driving again after another rigorous sprint, it will be interesting to see how he fares the following weekend at the high-altitude circuit in Mexico City.