Daniel Ricciardo: « We had a good race. »
For his first race this season, Daniel Ricciardo is satisfied. The Australian driver finished 13th in Hungary despite a collision in the first corner.
The weekend marked the great return of Daniel Ricciardo. Number 3 replaced Nyck de Vries behind the wheel of the AlphaTauri. The Hungarian Grand Prix was the Australian’s first race since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2022.
“Aussie Grit” had a difficult start right from his first lap: he was bumped into by Guanyu Zhou at the first turn of the race.
« It didn’t go as well as yesterday, but as soon as I started moving forward, I was obviously aware that I was going to end up at the back of the pack, and I was immediately disappointed. But then, I was happy not to have any damage,” said Daniel Ricciardo in a press conference for the Formula 1 YouTube channel.
Hungary was a learning experience for the former McLaren driver. « I needed to do this race, I needed to learn the car and also physically learn to do a race distance. Fortunately, the damage was really minor and I was able to continue and I think after that, we had a good race, I felt good in the car. »
The physical condition was the real question surrounding the Australian’s return.
« It was definitely something that raised concerns not to go racing for five months, especially on this track. Apart from turn 1, it was a good day,” rejoiced the AlphaTauri driver.
