It was an impressive return to Formula One for Daniel Ricciardo as his first qualifying session since leaving McLaren at the end of 2022 was a very positive one considering his current package.
Outpaced by Tsunoda on Friday in his first day in the AT04, the 8-time Grand Prix winner turned it around on Saturday was he beat the Japanese by 0.013s in Q1. Ricciardo made it through in P15, with Tsunoda out in 17th.
In Q2, the 34-year-old managed to beat Stroll and Gasly to finish 13th. A great effort that meant he only missed out on Q3 by 0.3s.
Ricciardo explained his main target before qualifying is to see how he stacked up versus Tsunoda.
“I had no idea where to expect to be on the grid, you know. The 13th place, in a way, feels somewhat irrelevant.
“I think, of course, my reference is Yuki for now. I think he’s also, watching from the outside, a good reference. Not only this year, but I think already the second half of last year, I could see with Pierre [Gasly], he was starting to be a lot more competitive.
“I think just to be, whether I’m ahead or behind, I think just to be there is positive for me. [I’ve] not [had] a whole lot of time in the car.”
He added he knew where to make a step today to find the few tenths that Tsunoda had on him yesterday.
“But in saying that, I felt pretty comfortable. Already yesterday, we only really got one session. I was a bit off the pace, but I kind of knew where I was missing. It was quite self-explanatory where I could find the pace. I felt quite confident in the car.”
Although racing drivers are always fiercely competitive and consistently looking for those marginal gains to win out, the enjoyment factor is something that can be forgotten about.
Ricciardo admitted that it was a joy to be back in a car that he could push to the limit again, and the fact his time away from F1 allowed him to find love for the sport again.
“Yeah, look, that was, of course, coming into the weekend, I knew there would be a bit of a hill to climb, and I was trying not to get caught up on how I go this weekend.
“But, of course, I’m a race car driver. I’m always going to expect something out of myself.
“But, truthfully, I was really trying to remove as much of that as I could and just make sure that this is the place that makes me feel like myself again.
“You know, jumping in the car in qualifying, I felt actually really relaxed and just not to take it lightly, but just happy, just happy to be back and happy to be able to, yeah, push the car on the limit again.
“This is something that I obviously didn’t always have the last year or two, and that’s why I think the time off was needed for me.
“I thought I was going to get 12 months. In the end, it was only about six or seven, whatever. But, fortunately, it was enough.
“You know, I felt like I had enough time to, let’s say, fall back in love.
Hungary is one of the toughest tracks on the calendar physically and with the high temperatures, it’s sure to be a tough return for Ricciardo tomorrow afternoon.
If you combine that with the fact he’s not done a race in the car yet, there is going to be a lot of challenges for him tomorrow. The Aussie expects to learn a lot.
“I think, yeah, I’ve done probably only like maybe an eight-lap [long] run or something at the moment.
“So, even for me, I think tomorrow there’s going to be a lot of things for me to learn in terms of tyre management, but also the car. You know, with fuel, as the tyres go off, I think I’ll start to probably discover a bit more about the car and, obviously, then in those conditions, the weaknesses.
“I think there’ll probably be laps where I’m maybe not doing too great, but then there’ll be laps where I’m doing better because I’m learning as I go in a way.
“I don’t want to say that negatively, but, yeah, inevitably, there’s going to be still a handful of things to pick up on. Hopefully, I can be a fast learner.
“If we find our way in the points, then that would be huge. But I think, for now, it’s not… obviously, as a team, we need to get points, but it’s really just making sure that I’m on top of the car, at one with the car.
“Then that’s, let’s say, the first box I need to tick.”
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
