“I know the car will have limitations”: Daniel Ricciardo ready to challenge with AlphaTauri’s F1 car despite its restraints 

AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo recently mentioned that he is aware that the AT04 will have "limitations" as it is easily one of the slowest cars on the grid.

The Aussie made a shock return to the grid, replacing Nyck de Vries in the Italian team last week after he impressed the Red Bull bosses with his tire test performance in Silverstone.

While speaking to The Race, Daniel Ricciardo claimed that he will try to avoid the mistakes he made at McLaren, saying:

"That was probably what hurt me the last couple of years. I probably started just falling into a little bit of a trap where, ‘Oh yeah, this car doesn’t suit me, and I need to work around this and this’. You can be your own worst enemy as well. Go back to my first quali with McLaren, I did a great quali, and that was when I didn’t know so much yet."

“I know the car will have limitations, I’m sure it’s not going to feel as good as the car I drove a week ago, but I’ll just work with that. I drove it on the sim last week and it seemed OK.”

Daniel Ricciardo on what he learned from his six-month sabbatical

Daniel Ricciardo stated that he reflected on his career a lot during his six-month sabbatical from the sport. The Australian driver was appointed as the reserve driver for Red Bull behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at the beginning of the 2023 season.

Talking about what he learned in that period, Ricciardo said:

"There’s a lot I learned. Not just singling the last two years or whatever, but over now my career. Having the last six months to actually reflect on my career, I’ve been able to see a few things where, ‘Oh yeah, I would have done that differently and I should have changed that or spoken up about that’. But you’re right. The fact is I’d driven the simulator but I hadn’t driven a car in eight months. Hadn’t really been doing anything driving-wise."

It will be fascinating to see how Daniel Ricciardo performs in his first outing in a race weekend this season at the Hungarian GP.