Daniel Ricciardo believes McLaren is the underdog in the battle with Alpine for fourth in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship.
Seven points separate the two teams with two rounds remaining in the 2023 season.
Formula 1 pays prize money based on the finishing positions of the constructors’ championship from the previous season, making the squabble significant in financial terms.
Alpine scored just four points in Mexico City last time out after Fernando Alonso retired and Esteban Ocon had to slow because of a water leak.
McLaren meanwhile recorded eight points, courtesy of a season’s-best performance (though not result) from Ricciardo in seventh and Lando Norris in ninth.
The papaya squad also outscored its rivals in the United States, and a strong double-points result in Singapore saw it capitalise on a double-DNF for Alpine.
However, while McLaren has shown an upswing in performance in recent races, Ricciardo remains cautious of his team’s chances of stealing away fourth spot.
“The strong points for them is they’ve been there all year,” the 33-year-old said of his former team.
“When comparing us two, I would have to dig for some for some weak points, because I think their strengths have just been their consistency this year from a car performance.
“Maybe reliability has been a little bit of a weakness for them at times; I think back to Alonso was on, I don’t think it would have been pole but it would have been a very good lap in Melbourne, when I think maybe that was a hydraulic problem or something when he crashed.
“Obviously, Singapore more recently, both cars retiring.
“So maybe you could say that it’s been a bit of a weakness, but to be honest, they’ve had a lot more strengths.
“Both drivers are performing very well,” he added.
“I mean, Alonso showed already last year that he was on and I think Esteban is having a wonderful year.
“We probably need to rely on some of the weaknesses coming through.
“I think for us, our update [which arrived in Singapore for Norris and Japan for Ricciardo], I think has helped us probably stay in the fight but as a true package, I do think they’ve been a stronger package this year.
“I don’t want to ignore that or not to put McLaren down, I just think they’ve been that little step better.
“So we’ve had to certainly fight for it, but that’s the beauty of this sport, things can happen. But we are the underdogs in that battle.”
The penultimate round of the 2022 championship, the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, begins on Friday with Free Practice 1 from 12:30 local time (15:30 BST/10:30 ET/02:30 AEDT Saturday).
As the final Sprint format weekend of the year, that will lead into Qualifying.
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