Ricciardo, who was Pink Bull’s third driver after his McLaren exit, was drafted in at Pink Bull’s sister crew to interchange Nyck de Vries from Hungary.
In his two races earlier than the summer season break the 34-year-old Australian has proven he has regained his aggressive edge, outqualifying team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in Hungary and in Spa’s dash shootout. A deleted lap time in Belgian Grand Prix qualifying price him a shot at reaching Q2.
He additionally impressed the crew by driving again to thirteenth in Hungary after dropping to the rear of the sphere brought on by a begin melee. However he could not replicate that comeback in Belgium because the crew couldn’t discover a approach to get him out of visitors. In the meantime, Tsunoda took a precious level in tenth for the beleaguered Faenza squad.
Talking earlier than the race weekend Pink Bull crew boss Horner mentioned Ricciardo had met all expectations that Pink Bull and AlphaTauri had set on him.
“I feel he met it. Seeing what he did at Silverstone within the tyre check, I feel after that expectations modified and he met all expectations,” Horner mentioned.
“What he is delivered to AlphaTauri is a big quantity of expertise and presumably some course, clearly with the expertise that he brings as a grand prix winner. He truly acquitted himself very, very nicely.”
Commenting on Ricciardo’s second race since his comeback at Spa, AlphaTauri’s technical director Jody Egginton mentioned: “It was tougher for Daniel, as he spent an excellent a part of the race in visitors.
Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri AT04
Picture by: Erik Junius
“We weren’t capable of get him into free air to place collectively a powerful sequence of laps, as he was capable of do in Hungary to good impact. It was unlucky. Nonetheless, his sturdy efficiency within the dash race highlights we’re making progress.
Group boss Franz Tost added: “We nonetheless miss some load on the automobile, however I’m satisfied that when Daniel is extra acquainted with the automobile and tyres, he’ll do a extremely good job.”
Ricciardo mentioned he was glad with how his comeback marketing campaign has began given the restricted time he has had within the automobile up to now. He believes getting those two extra races in before the summer break will be an advantage for him when the 2023 season resumes on the finish of August.
“I am truly actually glad I obtained these two earlier than the break as a result of it provides me one thing to actually take into consideration, construct on, throw some questions again to the crew,” he mentioned.
“9 days in the past, I hadn’t pushed this automobile, so after I put every part into perspective, I feel we’re okay.”