He finished the race in George Russell’s wake, and if there had been one more lap we might have seen Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri overtake the number 63 Mercedes. “When you get that close you always think…’ah, I could have!’ – admitted Ricciardo – but George defended himself well. And in the end, just the fact of having fought with a Mercedes makes me happy.” The seventh place finish is gold in the economy of AlphaTauri’s season, six points which have allowed the Faenza team to gain two positions in the Constructors’ classification, overtaking Haas and Alfa Romeo.
To make everything even more gratifying is the awareness of not having taken an opportunity. Ricciardo was consistently in the top positions throughout the weekend, and in the end he also has something to complain about. “Honestly, the red flag didn’t help us – explained Ricciardo – obviously it was necessary for Kevin’s bad accident, and in the end what matters is that he’s fine. In terms of the economy of our race, the interruption was not good news (Daniel was fifth at the time of the stop, four seconds ahead of Piastri) because it eliminated the gaps and above all it allowed those who still had the soft tires to be able to use them, while in my case I only had used sets. After the race restarted I struggled a bit, then in the last ten laps I was able to push harder and found myself in George’s wake.”
For Ricciardo, those achieved in Mexico are the first points of 2023, a season that began as a spectator, then interrupted again after two races due to the Zandvoort accident. Then the return to Austin. “I’m happy, but believe me, I’m even happier for the team – admitted Daniel – last week I saw everyone’s happiness for the five points gained by Yuki, and this weekend we improved our ranking again”. The step forward in terms of performance is undoubtedly linked to the good work done by AlphaTauri in view of the Mexican trip, but not only that. “I’m not entirely surprised – explained Ricciardo speaking about his weekend – I knew that the direction we took with the set-up would allow me to have a little more confidence with the car. There are still some things to do, in the race the pace in the first sector wasn’t good, but overall I can only be satisfied.”
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri AT04, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
The only discordant note in AlphaTauri on Sunday was Yuki Tsunoda. After starting from the last row (due to the replacement of the power unit), the Japanese driver ran a good first part of the race, and was the driver who benefited most from the red flag, having two sets of new tires saved in qualifying . From eighth position Tsunoda was in the ideal condition to complete an excellent comeback to eighth position, but he wasted it in contact with Piastri which relegated him back to the bottom of the standings. Tsunoda’s points would have been very useful, given that now there is a little thought about hooking up the Williams in Faenza. The twelve point margin is not a small thing, but Ricciardo wants to believe it. “If we are going to confirm ourselves at this weekend’s levels, why not do it?”
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