As Daniel Ricciardo Makes a Fool of Sergio Perez, Helmut Marko Opens His Eyes to ‘Unbelievable’ Situation

For long, the Red Bull camp has been in a state of unrest following the subpar performances of Sergio Perez. There have been major doubts about the Mexican driver’s future with the team, with many claiming that the 2023 season might be his final stint with the team despite his contract running till the end of the 2024 season.

Even Christian Horner is running out of patience with the 33-year-old as he recently revealed that while there was no pressure on Perez to finish P2 in the driver’s championship, there was no shortage of alternates for Red Bull if the need arises.

The number one name on the alternatives’ list would be Daniel Ricciardo, who made a comeback to racing in Austin following his injury. Ricciardo has had an instant impact as he out-qualified Perez in only his second race (after injury) in the latter’s home race. Having secured P4 in the starting grid, Ricciardo has impressed the senior officials at Red Bull, with Helmut Marko praising the Honey Badger for an impressive feat, as reported by Motorsport Total.

“Incredible! He [Daniel Ricciardo] really got everything out of it. Great comeback after his hand injury and a good recommendation for the future.”

The qualifying result came in line with Ricciardo’s expectations from the car after a successful couple of practice sessions on Friday.

Daniel Ricciardo saw a good qualifying coming his way in Mexico City

Following the first two practice sessions of the Mexico City GP weekend, Ricciardo was full of confidence in the AT04. He was sure that he would be able to finish in points during the feature race and knew that they would have a good qualifying session on Saturday. However, Ricciardo did not expect to qualify in the second row as the best he assumed was a “sixth or a seventh place.” The AT04 had a strong qualifying as Ricciardo was only 0.216 seconds off the pace from pole finisher Charles Leclerc.

 

Daniel Ricciardo. P4!! 🤯#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/3uXDv4Qobs

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 28, 2023

Much of the performance came owing to the drastic changes made to the car, specifically for the Mexican GP. The most prominent upgrades came in the form of a new underbody and new brake ducts, while another crucial aspect was the experimentation with AT04’s rear wings.

Yuki Tsunoda, driving with a new engine, was pivotal in helping Ricciardo set the pace early as he gave him an important slipstream in Q1 on Saturday. As such, Ricciardo’s car has the pace to take the fight to the ‘top dogs’ of F1, but how the car will perform in the long run is still a big question mark.