19/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo: "I'm stoked to be back. As always with the Red Bull family, you have to be ready for a call and when it came I jumped at the opportunity. The transition to AlphaTauri has gone smoothly. Last week, I was back in Faenza, the factory has changed a lot since I last raced for the team a decade ago, but there were still plenty of familiar faces and I felt at home as we prepare for the upcoming race.
"When I drove the Red Bull in the tyre test at Silverstone last week it all felt very normal. The AlphaTauri car will be what it is. I'm going to drive it and work from there. I don't want to have too many preconceived ideas about it. I think if it's a car that feels balanced, that's something I can work with. It's going to be a challenge, to jump in and just hit the ground running, but I'm excited about it.
"I'm looking forward to also developing the car and using my experience, and ultimately, I think, for Budapest, just go out and have fun, try and use more right foot than left and have a good time! The key to this track is getting into a rhythm - you put so many corners together - and if the car is balanced, you can really have some fun."
Yuki Tsunoda: "I'm looking forward to working with Daniel. I can't say I know him very well, but we had a fun day filming together earlier this year in Miami. I think I'll benefit from having a very good, experienced driver as a teammate. I'm sure I can learn lots of things from him and I also expect he will be able to bring something to the team and move the car development forward.
"I would also like to say that I had an enjoyable time over the past ten races with Nyck. I learned from him, and we also had a good time away from the track. He had plenty of experience in other categories and gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge. He had the pace and, as a friend, I enjoyed my time with him.
"For this weekend, we have more upgrades for the race in Hungary, on top of those we brought to the last race. Budapest has completely different track characteristics compared to the past two races, and its slow-speed corners should suit our car better than the high-speed ones. I like the track, it's technical and challenging, and good fun. I have nice memories from my first F1 race there in 2021 as it was very chaotic and I finished sixth, after starting 16th! I'm optimistic, I always treat every race as a new opportunity where anything can happen. As a team, we're very motivated to go forward and develop the car as much as possible. In my mind, I've had a complete reset from the last few races, especially Silverstone, and I'm in a positive frame of mind."