“Nothing really felt that constructive”: Daniel Ricciardo judges how the damage to his AlphaTauri car affected his US Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo believes the race rust had worn off in the 2023 US Grand Prix, but his performance was limited by the damage. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the race, the Australian felt he was more confident physically after the race than the sprint.

Speaking to the media after the sprint race, Daniel Ricciardo mentioned he had some race rust upon returning after a hiatus.

The Australian felt he still had a lot of catching up to do and needed to get more insights from his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. He started the race from tenth on the grid but was unable to finish in the points and finished last instead.

Asked by Sportskeeda if his race rust had worn off, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Definitely after today I think it was better I think at times we like communication but I think especially once I got the damage, nothing really felt that constructive to give back because we're working with a sub optimum car."

Daniel Ricciardo added:

"So I think the only thing yeah as I said I'll maybe question is as we started getting blue flags maybe I should have asked a few more questions. But it's hard because the medium tire was feeling okay. I was kind of holding pace so yeah, seemed like maybe we were still tracking okay, but yeah, we just lost a lot in the traffic there.”

Summarising his first F1 race weekend upon returning, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Let's start physically physically pretty good. Actually, I actually felt probably worse yesterday than today. So, in terms of I say worse, I was obviously still okay. But I felt like I got out of the car probably sweating more. So maybe that was just a good little good little warm up for me. And I think yeah, there's positives, the hand is no excuse."

He continued:

"I think that was that was good. So I think we did well with the timing of the return to kind of have no hesitations or excuses. Physically, it's definitely a tougher race. And I still felt okay, we were just limited with damage.Unfortunately, we picked up some damage.”

Despite the pace in his car, Daniel Ricciardo picked up damage on his floor during the race, which caused him to trail off to the bottom of the grid. However, since it was his first outing after his hand surgery, the Australian felt much more confident physically after the race than during the sprint.

On whether his race rust had worn off, the 34-year-old believes he could have been more communicative during the race. On the medium tire, he felt he had the pace, but he felt he lost time in traffic once the blue flags came out.

After lap 43, the AlphaTauri kept losing places and dropped down to last place by lap 45. He pitted to the soft tire at lap 49, but the blue flags did not help him surge back up the grid despite the quicker pace.

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Daniel Ricciardo explained the damage that limited his performance in the 2023 Austin GP

Daniel Ricciardo believes that he picked up damage shortly after switching to the hard tire, after which he started to lose pace. Uncertain whether it was a kerb or debris, the Australian mentioned that his team told him the damage was at the front of the car.

Despite the car’s ability to finish in the top 10, the damage limited his performance and result. Daniel Ricciardo claimed a retirement or pitstop to fix the damage was being considered, and that was when he pitted the top switch to the soft tire.

Explaining the damage to the car that cost him a points finish, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“I want to say very shortly after the hard (tyres) because we lost a lot of pace very quickly. And I told the team that I'm sorry, guys, I got nothing right now. I really can't do anything. And then they said, ‘it looks like we we've lost something’. And they came back and said, ‘yeah, there's damage to somewhere on the front of the car’. So I don't know. I guess it was debris because they mentioned Stroll."

He further said:

"I think we got close, but I don't think we touched. So I think we must have picked up some debris somewhere that made our race a pretty miserable one. I won't lie. We're already trying to work with our best with the top 10 car and when you put damage into it, we are certainly certainly out of the points.”

Asked if he got the fastest lap, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“I think for a little bit but I think Yuki pitted at the end. But we yeah, we were on the hard with all that damage and with the damage and we stayed out and I was so obviously trying not to be too negative. But I was saying like ‘guys I can't I can't really do anything’ and kind of suggesting Do we just box some either call it a day or try to fix it and learn something because we weren't learning anything."

He concluded:

"So we got to a point where I said ‘Okay, I'll try to at least say can we fix it?’ So I asked and he said yeah, ‘we'll pick it and try to fix it up’. I don't know if it was front wing or brake ducts but they put the soft on and it was a bit better but I don't think it was still that impressive. So I imagined maybe we still have some damage from that.”

Having not raced for four weekends since his injury in Zandvoort, Daniel Ricciardo had to return to an intense sprint weekend in Austin. However, in terms of pace, he had matched Tsunoda and even outperformed him in the sprint.

But in the race, the unfortunate damage to his car seemed to have denied him a potential points finish. His Japanese teammate finished tenth but eventually got promoted to eighth place as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified for a technical breach.