Ricciardo is very hungry for the Mexican Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo delivered two strong performances during the Grand Prix of Mexico trials. This weekend, the Australian is very hungry.
The start of the weekend is interesting for AlphaTauri. During the two practice sessions on Friday, the Italian team relied on a Daniel Ricciardo in great shape and eager for redemption after his United States Grand Prix. The Australian driver, who has just returned from a fracture in his left hand’s metacarpal, finished twice in the top 10 during the practice sessions.
In the first session, Ricciardo secured a very solid 8th place in the ranking with 1:20.568, which is +0.850 compared to Max Verstappen, the fastest in FP1. A few hours later, in the second session, the former Red Bull driver achieved the 6th best time with a lap of 1:19.002, which is +0.316 compared to the reference time.
Following these performances, Daniel Ricciardo is ambitious for the Mexico Grand Prix with AlphaTauri. “I was obviously hungry and I wanted to get back on track,” said the Australian to F1 TV. “We discovered things in Austin that made me want to get back on the right path to prove that we have a certain pace. It was fun, and I appreciate this place. The car was solid, and we made good progress with some small adjustments to the settings. We are in a good position, but it’s very tight. We were P6 in the afternoon, which is great, but also ahead, the gap isn’t too big. It’s just about putting things together in qualifying.”
Notable improvements
Before Sunday’s race, AlphaTauri occupies last place in the constructor standings with 10 points. The Italian team had earned five valuable points in Austin. Yuki Tsunoda’s best time and the retirements of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc had allowed the Japanese driver to get within two points of Haas.
The recent improvements made to the single-seaters seem to be having an effect, and Daniel Ricciardo wants to take advantage of it. We started with different setups, and there were things that if it wasn’t a sprint weekend, we could have tried, explained the 34-year-old driver. Today, we were able to test new things, and right from the start, I felt comfortable. I can’t sit here and predict where we will be in qualifying because other teams will be changing their setups, but I know what I felt in the car. It was good, and I believe it’s a top 10 car. The top six would be good, so we’ll try to build on this. It was a good day, and it gives me confidence.
