"He came in and he beat Yuki Tsunoda on Day 1": Daniel Ricciardo's debut took the shine off his teammate's impressive season, according to F1 pundit

F1 paddock journalist Mat Coch recently spoke about how well Daniel Ricciardo performed in his first race of the 2023 F1 season, where he beat Yuki Tsunoda.

The Australian replaced a struggling Nyck de Vries in the Hungarian Grand Prix last month and immediately started performing quite decently.

Speaking on the Fox Sports podcast Pit Talk, Coch stated how he would have placed 23-year-old Tsunoda in the top 10 before the Hungarian GP. However, 34-year-old Daniel Ricciardo's entry and performance in the race changed Coch's view of the Japanese driver. He said:

“Before Hungary, I’d have probably put him [Tsunoda] in the top 10 quite comfortably, but the reason I’ve stopped short of that is twofold. One is Daniel’s performance in Hungry — he came in and he beat Yuki Tsunoda on Day 1. That says a bit about Daniel, but it also tells me a bit about Yuki as well, and what that tells me is that maybe he wasn’t getting the most out of the car, maybe he wasn’t doing that good a job."

The F1 journalist explained how shocking it was to see Daniel Ricciardo, who had little to no knowledge about AlphaTauri's AT04, compete in his first race and beat Yuki Tsunoda, who has been working with the team for more than two years now. Coch concluded:

“For someone to come in and beat him [Tsunoda], having no knowledge of that car, how good is he? He rebounded a little bit in Belgium, but for me, that took a big part of the shine off Yuki Tsunoda’s season.”

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Yuki Tsunoda admits that going up against Daniel Ricciardo would be 'challenging'

Yuki Tsunoda is well aware of how great a driver Daniel Ricciardo is. Speaking to Motorsport.com, the young Japanese recently stated that it would be challenging for him to keep up with Ricciardo once he gets comfortable and starts delivering great performances. The AlphaTauri driver praised his new teammate, saying:

"It's challenging. But at the same time, I know that this current situation is completely new for me. I'm learning a lot, especially getting challenged by an experienced driver. And not only is he an experienced driver, he’s a top driver and we know that he's fast. I already know he is fast but also how he's behaving in the team is like probably the opposite as me."

Though the Australian driver has not yet scored any F1 championship points, it is safe to say that he will soon start picking them up in future races. Yuki Tsunoda, on the other hand, has only scored three points so far.