In a not quite unexpected, but maybe not expected so soon turn of events, a grinning Daniel Ricciardo found himself walking into the F1 paddock at the Hungaroring (the circuit at which he achieved his second Grand Prix victory) last weekend about to be competing behind the wheel of an F1 car once again.
Nyck de Vries’ unceremonious dismissal from the Red Bull junior team, AlphaTauri, after a spate of sub-par or mediocre performances had brought about the return of one of F1’s favourite characters, no doubt a return that sent Netflix executives into a state of frenzied bliss. Naturally enough, a ‘Drive to Survive’ camera crew were never far from his side during Thursday’s media sessions in Budapest.
But despite how comfortable he seems on camera and the obvious joy he felt at the prospect of a race seat, even joking that the attention he was receiving made him feel akin to having won the world championship, the seasoned Australian knew his main job was to forget all of that and focus on the primary goal of any driver – outperform your teammate. Ricciardo put his AT04 13th on the grid for Sunday’s race – 4 places higher than the other AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda and bringing the car home in P13, 2 places ahead of his young Japanese teammate.
But how does fellow Red Bull stablemate and of course one-time teammate Max Verstappen rate Ricciardo’s return?
“I think he had a very strong first weekend in practice, qualifying…of course he had the bad luck at turn one – he still fought his way back to P13 so I think for that first weekend he did a great job.”
Finishing back in the position he started in though, doesn’t quite do his performance justice as on the opening lap he was caught up the first corner incident that saw both Alpine runners collide and retire from the race.
Despite taking an impact from Ocon’s car as well as Zhou’s, the 8-time Grand Prix winner managed to emerge unscathed, albeit now running 18th and therefore last of the remaining cars hence the fight to get back to P13 mentioned by Verstappen.
After pushing his team to find him some clear air to run in, he switched back to medium tyres on his second stop after just 11 laps on the hard compound with 40 laps remaining in the race. This gave him the opportunity to take time out of the cars ahead and once they made their second stops, he gained positions, enough to find himself back where he started after many watching the first lap incident had felt that his race looked nigh unsalvageable. No points for 13th, but beating his teammate on his return was no doubt the result he desired.
His transfer or “loan” according to Red Bull boss Christian Horner to the sister team does leave Red Bull without him, and the services that go along with it. Sergio Perez feels like this is a loss, but Verstappen feels a little different:
“Honestly, I’m happy that he’s back in the car. I would always prefer him in a car than being our reserve, because he deserves to be in a car so we’ll deal with that loss. Im happy to deal with that loss so long as he’s in a car.”
Sunday’s race for Verstappen is set to be intriguing as he will start from P6 at best. The Dutchman will fit his fifth gearbox of 2023, and that incurs a 5-place grid drop as drivers are only allowed to use four before penalties get handed out.
