Daniel Ricciardo finally returned to his AlphaTauri seat at the 2023 United States Grand Prix. At the Circuit of the Americas, however, the honey badger had to deal with a nightmarish race that ended in major disappointment. While Ricciardo has undisputedly been ailing with a broken wrist, he was not ready to use it as an excuse for his poor performance, as per F1Maximaal.nl.
The Perth-born driver had a torrid afternoon during Sunday’s race. Out of the 15 runners who officially completed the Grand Prix, Ricciardo finished in plum last and lap behind the leader, his ex-teammate, Max Verstappen.
The 2023 AlphaTauri challenger has been a handful to drive for its drivers. Be that as it may, the inconsistency that the AT04 has instilled into its performances has started frustrating Ricciardo who wants to regularly fight for and finish in the points.
F1 comeback isn’t going as planned for Daniel Ricciardo
While there is no doubt that AlphaTauri hasn’t been in the best of form, Ricciardo has still been lagging behind his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda. The young Japanese driver managed to finish in the points, in 8th while Ricciardo went pointless.
After the race, Ricciardo declared, “The hand is no excuse. I think it was good. We have done well with the timing of the return so as not to have any doubts or excuses,” according to Motorsport.com (quoted by F1Maximaal).
This unfortunate string of events actually began when Ricciardo lost control behind the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and banged into the walls of the first of the banked corners at Zandvoort during FP2 for the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. He broke his wrist, and was declared unfit to drive.
Ricciardo has a mountain to climb in 2023 and 2024
The honey badger was out of action for almost 2 months since his crash during the Dutch GP weekend. And while he was unable to race alongside Tsunoda, Red Bull gave Liam Lawson his F1 debut.
Lawson was quick to impress as he scored his first points during the Singapore Grand Prix. Naturally, the debutant turned quite a few heads in the paddock with his performances. However, the team have chosen to stick with the pairing of Tsunoda and Ricciardo for 2024.
A seat at AlphaTauri isn’t Ricciardo’s aim, though. He wants that 2nd Red Bull seat of Sergio Perez. But if he really wants a shot at glory, he needs to pull his socks up and consistently outperform his teammate at its sister team.
