For 2 seasons Ricciardo and McLaren tirelessly labored to make the Australian comfy within the Woking squad’s equipment.
McLaren’s present lineage of automobiles has a infamous low-speed weak spot, which the crew nonetheless hasn’t been in a position to tackle, and its drivers have been pressured to compromise their braking and cornering type greater than they want.
Whereas Lando Norris, and now Oscar Piastri, have been in a position to drive across the weaknesses to attain a string of podiums at circuits that go well with the present MCL60, Ricciardo by no means managed to beat the discrepancy between how its predecessors wanted to be pushed and his personal driving type.
Quick ahead to the second half 2023 and AlphaTauri, which has handed Ricciardo a lifeline after half a season on the sidelines, has made related observations to McLaren concerning the Australian’s wants.
“We are able to see that he drives the automobile otherwise to a few of the different drivers that we have labored with, and with Yuki [Tsunoda],” head of trackside engineering Jonathan Eddolls defined on Sunday earlier than the Mexico GP.
“The way in which he assaults the corners, the best way he hits the brakes. The driving type is completely different.”
However whereas Ricciardo chased his tail at McLaren to scale back his deficit to Norris, which finally proved counterproductive and sapped him of confidence, he now seems to have discovered a automobile that does give him the pliability to deploy his pure driving type.
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36
Ricciardo’s wrist fracture seriously delayed that process. Throughout his five-race lay-off AlphaTauri introduced a gradual stream of incremental upgrades to its AT04, which meant that it had to return to fundamentals in Austin to get Ricciardo on top of things with a automobile that was considerably completely different to the one he drove on his preliminary comeback.
The dash format’s restrictive parc ferme guidelines meant Ricciardo was soon stuck with a set-up that wasn’t optimal as he completed a lapped fifteenth.
“We had that the query mark [in Austin], which is why we type of put him again on Yuki’s set=up, as a result of the automobile has developed so much since we introduced many aero updates and traits had modified,” Eddolls added.
“After which he was caught as a result of it was parc ferme, in order that was the frustration of that weekend. We got here out of it understanding that in all probability there was extra efficiency within the package deal that we did not have the chance to unlock.”
In Mexico, nonetheless, Ricciardo and his engineers had the luxurious of three common apply periods to fine-tune his automobile.
The Faenza crew discovered a set-up breakthrough that, along with its track-specific strengths, enabled Ricciardo to take a shock fourth place in qualifying, only a tenth behind Max Verstappen.
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri AT04
He converted that into a seventh place in the race on the tail of Mercedes’ George Russell, which may have been fifth if it hadn’t been for the timing of a mid-race crimson flag. The stoppage allowed Russell and Norris to bolt on the quicker medium tyres, with Ricciardo had no usable set of.
“Coming right here as a standard and free weekend has allowed us to spend the a lot of the Friday engaged on completely different set-ups to attempt to unlock a bit extra potential from the automobile based mostly round his driving type,” Eddolls commented.
“We’re not speaking huge numbers, however we are able to see variations in the best way he drives. And he makes the lap time in numerous elements of the nook. And due to this fact the automobile exposes completely different weaknesses to the best way Yuki drives it.
“Certainly one of his huge limitations has been the entrance finish, so the [set-up] instructions have been in a position to enhance the entrance finish of the automobile for him.”
AlphaTauri has proven glimpses of promise since its newest spherical of frequent ground upgrades and totally exploited its mechanical grip on the excessive altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
However whereas its eye-catching Mexico kind will not be anticipated to hold over to 2023’s remaining races to the identical diploma, Eddolls believes Ricciardo’s set-up positive factors will persist, and they’ll additionally profit Tsunoda.
“I feel that this can proceed with Daniel,” he stated. “However we have additionally bought to recollect Yuki has been robust right here. He missed out on FP1 with Isack [Hadjar] within the automobile.
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri AT04
“By the tender tyre run in FP2 he was on top of things and practically matching Daniel. It is not like this set-up path goes to unlock potential only for Daniel.”
When requested why AlphaTauri was in a position to make issues work for Ricciardo when McLaren couldn’t, Eddolls thinks the AT04’s lack of particular weaknesses, in comparison with McLaren’s low-speed struggles, has made it a extra benign automobile to deal with.
That has given Ricciardo a steady baseline to additional extract efficiency from, fairly than having to stroll on eggshells.
“I can not communicate for McLaren, however the automobile we have got behaves,” he defined. “Possibly we have not fairly bought the load or effectivity of a few of the prime groups, however there are not any huge elementary weaknesses.
“The truth that it does the identical factor each lap, nook to nook, has given him the boldness to have the ability to throw the automobile into the corners and is aware of that it may stick and that it’ll do the identical factor each time.
“It is a automobile that is given him the boldness to have the ability to push it nearer to the restrict than perhaps he had at McLaren.
Increasing on his Mexico progress a buoyant Ricciardo stated: “The path we went with the set-up, I knew that will enable me to only have a bit extra confidence with the automobile.
“Final week Yuki bought 5 factors and it was big for the crew. Everybody was cartwheeling and backflipping. So every week later to get six factors, I am very glad.
“For positive there are some issues I can nonetheless enhance on, however general I am very, very pleased with the weekend.”