Daniel Ricciardo made a grand comeback at the Mexico City GP from his wrist injury with a sensational performance which helped him secure P7. However, as per a recent report by Autosport, Ricciardo wasn’t satisfied with his result until he managed to do something towards the end of the race, which compensated for his sadness of missing out P6.
Ricciardo had managed to put in a stellar lap during Qualifying and had claimed P4 on the grid. On race day, he managed to keep his calm and despite dropping a place, was holding on to P5 through most of the race until a red flag due to a crash hampered his race.
Christian Horner praises Daniel Ricciardo
“Fighting a Mercedes in an AlphaTauri for their best result of the year was a great performance.”
“That’s the Daniel we are used to seeing.”#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/D3nlZeXFkv
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) October 29, 2023
Ricciardo was majorly affected by the Red Flag and soon after, he dropped to P7, after being overtaken by George Russell who claimed sixth place. The Honey Badger was slightly discontent because he believes that P6 was up for grabs and he could have done better to hold on to the position.
However, the Australian driver revealed that being able to follow a Mercedes towards the latter stages of the race in an AlphaTauri, was something that motivated him majorly. It made up for his dissatisfaction of losing P6 to Russell.
Ricciardo said, “We got very close to George at the end. I think big picture, just to be battling the Mercedes at the end makes me more happy than [I’m sad at] missing out on sixth.”
Daniel Ricciardo might just have booked his wildcard ticket to Red Bull
With the sensational performance at Mexico, Ricciardo managed to help AlphaTauri make the jump to P8. This could be a huge deal for the team as it would translate to a much higher share of the prize money at the end of the season.
Safe to say, Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed himself at the Mexico City Grand Prix 👏 pic.twitter.com/bHmBJ8esyG
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) October 30, 2023
The performance has also stirred up quite a lot of rumors regarding Ricciardo’s future at AlphaTauri. He put in the performance of a lifetime on the day that Perez crashed out in lap 1 in front of his home crowd.
Rumors around the paddock have already started to suggest that Ricciardo might just be on his way to replace Perez soon. However, nothing is confirmed, even more so because the Red Bull management doesn’t think that the blame for the first lap incident lies on Perez at all.
