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Daniel Ricciardo has suggested he was close to, but not at the very limit of what his Scuderia AlphaTauri was capable of in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo qualified 13th for his first race back, four places better than team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
It’s a result that comes despite a lack of laps in the Scuderia AlphaTauri AT04, having only driven the car for the first time on Friday.
“I had no idea where to expect to be on the grid, so 13th place in a way feels somewhat irrelevant,” he said when asked by Speedcafe if his performance exceeded his expectations.
“Of course, my reference is Yuki for now, and I think he’s also, watching from the outside, a good reference.
“Not only this year, but I think already the second half of last year could see with Pierre [Gasly] he was starting to be a lot more competitive.
“Whether I’m ahead or behind, I think just to be there is positive for me.
“Not a whole lot of time in the car, but in saying that, I felt pretty comfortable already yesterday – we only really got one session, but I was a bit off the pace, but I kind of knew where I was missing, and it was quite self-explanatory where I could find the pace.
“So I felt quite confident in the car, but now it’s always… probably all of us can get to 95 percent quite easily at this level, it’s in those last few percent.
“I think I found a little bit in quali, but for sure, there’s still a little bit more.”
Ricciardo managed just 37 laps on Friday, only seven in the opening hour as rain interrupted proceedings.
The 34-year-old suggested that within the first lap he was getting positive vibes from the car.
“Before the rain came in FP1 I did pretty much one lap – I got the red flag just before the line,” he explained.
“Already in one lap of driving the car, I was filled with a bit of confidence. It wasn’t at the limit yet, but I felt like it was responding the way I was anticipating.
“In general, I think it’s something I can feel comfortable with and work with.
“Probably now, it’s just overall load that it’s missing, but the balance feels not a million miles away.
“That’s encouraging; encouraging for me that it’s a little bit familiar.”
That initial confidence, coupled with the lessons gleaned from a night spent reviewing the data, led the Australian to suggest he was not far from extracting everything in his first qualifying session for the team.
“Yesterday, there was still some things I was missing some lap time on, and I improved those today,” he explained.
“Everything I had to improve last night, I felt like I was able to go close to 100 percent – maybe 98 – so I took a nice step.
“I think that was pretty good.”
