Daniel Ricciardo has conceded to enduring a “miserable” United States Grand Prix after his AlphaTauri sustained front-end damage.
Ricciardo was running as high as 11th at one stage in the opening stint at the Circuit of the Americas, just behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
But following his first pit stop during which he switched from the medium to the hard compound tyres, Ricciardo encountered an issue with his car that saw him plummet down the order, eventually finishing last of the 17 classified finishers.
“We were just limited with damage, unfortunately,” said Ricciardo.
“We picked up some damage very shortly after (putting on) the hard (tyre) because we lost a lot of pace very quickly.
“I told the team ‘Sorry guys, I’ve got nothing right now. I really can’t do anything’.
“They said that it looked like we’ve lost something, and then they said, ‘Yeah, there’s damage to somewhere on the front of the car’. I guess it was debris.
“They mentioned (Lance) Stroll. I think we got close, but I don’t think we touched, so I think we must have picked up some debris somewhere, and that made our race a pretty miserable one.
“I won’t lie, we’re at best a top-10 car but when you add damage into it, we are certainly out of the points.”
Ricciardo has confirmed that he came close to joining the list of retirees which, by the end of the race included McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Esteban Ocon in his Alpine, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
“We were on the hard with that damage and we stayed out,” added Ricciardo.
“I was obviously trying not to be too negative, but I was saying ‘Guys, I can’t really do anything’ and kind of suggesting ‘Do we box and call it a day or try to fix it and learn something?’ because we weren’t learning anything.
“So it got to a point where I said ‘Okay, I’ll say ‘Can we fix it?’, so I asked and they said ‘Yeah, we’ll try to fix it up’.
“I don’t know if it (the problem) was front wing or brake duct but they put the soft (tyre) on and it was a bit better but still not that impressive, so I imagined maybe we still had some damage.”
As to his personal fitness following a five-grand prix lay-off due to him breaking a bone in his hand in practice for the Dutch GP in August, Ricciardo conceded to feeling “pretty good” after completing the full race distance.
“I felt probably worse yesterday (after the sprint) than today – I say worse but I was obviously still okay,” said Ricciardo.
“But I felt like I got out of the car probably sweating more, so maybe that was just a good little warm-up for me.
“There are positives. The hand is no excuse, that was good, and we did well with the timing of the return, to kind of have no hesitations or excuses.
“Physically, it’s definitely a tough race and I still felt okay.”
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