Daniel Ricciardo is keeping his early performances with Scuderia AlphaTauri in perspective but wants to be “kicking arse” in his F1 return.
Ricciardo returned to the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix in place of Nyck de Vries.
He out-qualified and out-raced team-mate Yuki Tsunoda that weekend but could not repeat that in Belgium seven days later.
A Sprint format event, teams had just a single 60-minute practice session before competitive sessions began.
Complicating matters, that was held in the wet, while Sunday’s race was a dry affair.
With limited time in the car and precious little experience, it made for a difficult Sunday for Ricciardo.
A slide through Raidillon in qualifying on Friday saw his best lap deleted saw him exit the session early with the 19th best time.
Things were better in the F1 Sprint, finishing the F1 Shootout 11th fastest and the 11-lap ‘race’ 10th – he’d been higher before high tyre wear in the latter stages hurt his pace and saw him lose out.
Speaking to media, including Speedcafe, immediately after climbing from his car in Belgium on Sunday, Ricciardo was pragmatic.
“I think that’s where even now, like 15 minutes removed from the race, I already feel a little bit better,” he said.
“It’s just tough when you, in a race, when you’re not really making progress. That’s where you are, and you try a few things, and when you try, it doesn’t work and you lock up or you have a moment.
“So, kind of just feel ‘Alright, today’s maybe not the day’.
“I think it’s… I don’t know… Nine days ago, I hadn’t driven this car, so when I put everything into perspective, I think we’re okay.
“And from what I understand, I think the few laps we got towards the end in clear air, we actually were on a decent pace, so it’s probably not all that bad.
“But yeah, now that I’m back in the sport, I’ve got a taste – I was to make sure that I’m kicking arse.”
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