The Australian is making his comeback with AlphaTauri on the Hungaroring this weekend after being drafted in as replacement for Nyck de Vries.
And though he was one in all a number of drivers not to complete a flying lap in the rain-interrupted first practice session, he ended the afternoon’s FP2 running 14th, lower than half a second behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Talking after he bought out of the automotive, Ricciardo felt there was nonetheless loads of room for enchancment however was inspired that there was no main trigger for alarm together with his first expertise of the AT04 automotive.
“Place [wise], it is in all probability not too related in the mean time,” he stated. “I believe it was extra only for me at present to really feel mainly the place I’m with a automotive. And all of it felt fairly acquainted.
“I believe clearly there’s a whole lot of outdoors consideration. However as soon as I put the helmet on and bought within the automotive, all of it felt like in a manner I by no means actually left. In order that was good.”
Daniel Ricciardo, Scuderia AlphaTauri
Photograph by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images
Ricciardo believed that some enchancment with the set-up of his automotive, allied to himself extracting extra tempo as he bought himself in control with F1 equipment once more, might assist ship a strong efficiency in qualifying.
“I believe there is a little more [to come] out of me. And for certain there’s some issues already I really feel within the automotive that we will try to work on.
“So proper now, I am fairly optimistic. It seemed like Yuki as nicely had a fairly good day. So yeah, I believe if we put all these items collectively, perhaps tomorrow we will do okay.”
One space the place Ricciardo believed he might make good points was in attacking new tyres higher, having bought a run on the mushy and medium compounds in FP2 that may have to be run in qualifying tomorrow.
“I believe the primary set on medium was not too dangerous,” he stated. “We’re type of working away at it. After which on the mushy, I’m simply nonetheless studying about placing a lap collectively.
“However basically, I believe I bought a great feeling within the automotive at present. There are issues for me to work on, which I am not too involved about. After which some issues on the automotive that we will simply hold taking a look at enhancing.”