Jury Still Out on How Daniel Ricciardo Will Fare Despite Outperforming Yuki Tsunoda as Hungaroring Masked AlphaTauri Ill-Traits

Daniel Ricciardo made a brilliant comeback to F1 after his eight-month-long sabbatical at the 2023 Hungarian GP. The Australian managed to outqualify his teammate Yuki Tsunoda by four places in his weekend back.  He also followed it up with a strong performance during the race. However, AlphaTauri’s head of trackside engineering Jonathan Eddolls believes that Ricciardo’s performance cannot be judged based on this weekend alone.

Eddolls explained that the AlphaTauri has had some issues that troubled the outgoing Nyck De Vries. This is something that might affect Ricciardo as well. However, the Hungaroring seemed to mask those issues and Ricciardo managed to put in an amazing performance.

The honey badger seemed to be quite impressed with the car after the qualifying session, claiming that he felt really comfortable right away. However, after the race, Ricciardo admitted that there is quite a lot to learn from the car.

The Hungaroring helped Daniel Ricciardo on his AlphaTauri debut

There had been reports that one of the major issues impacting AlphaTauri was its weakness during the corner entry. According to Eddolls, the Italian team hasn’t been able to solve the issue yet despite bringing in upgrades to the floor and the rear and front wings.

However, AlphaTauri did not have to deal with those issues in Hungary. Speaking to Motorsport.com, Eddolls said, “Actually, that hasn’t been one of the biggest limitations so far of the weekend. Because the tire grip and the downforce sort of masked it. It hasn’t been such an issue here.”

Therefore, it is still a doubt if Daniel Ricciardo would be able to maximize the performance of the car once he takes on other tracks that do not really suit the car.

Ricciardo’s heroics in Hungary

Despite the doubts, it must be noted that Ricciardo managed to beat his teammate during both qualifying and the race, something that Nyck De Vries failed to do on most occasions. Therefore, in just in first race, it is safe to say that Ricciardo has managed to do what de Vries struggled to.

As for the main race, Ricciardo had a shunt at the start. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who stalled at the beginning, made contact with the Perth-born driver. The former McLaren racer fell back to the end of the grid. However, he put on an amazing stint with the medium tires towards the end of the race, and managed to overtake his teammate to finish P13.

Therefore, it is already clear that Ricciardo is settling well into F1 and does not lack any bit of confidence. Whether he will be consistent enough, remains to be seen.