31/10/2023
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo's performance in Mexico clearly impressed Christian Horner, as speculation over Sergio Perez's future mounts.
Having qualified an amazing fourth, the Australian looked set to convert that into an equally strong race finish, until the red flag that followed Kevin Magnussen's crash scuppered his dreams.
Restarting on the hard rubber, he eventually succumbed to both George Russell and Lando Norris, crossing the finish line in seventh.
Nonetheless, it was his first points finish since being drafted in to replace Nyck de Vries, and more importantly the first since his accident at Zandvoort, and among those impressed by the Australian was former boss, Christian Horner.
"You couldn't fail to be impressed by Daniel this weekend," the Red Bull boss told Sky Sports. "His qualifying was outstanding and he showed his maturity and experience and pace in the race.
"I think fighting a Mercedes in an AlphaTauri for their best result of the year was a great performance," he added. "Had it not been for the red flag he might have actually finished even further up.
"He can take a lot of confidence coming back from injury, he's had a rough time over the last couple of months having to sit on the sidelines but that's the Daniel we're used to seeing."
Indeed, Ricciardo rues the fact that the race was red-flagged, especially as he didn't have the luxury of medium tyres available.
"Honestly the red flag I think hurt us," he said. "But I don't want to say it too selfishly, because there was a big accident, I believe a car failure, so nothing Kevin could do.
"It obviously bunched everyone up and allowed some cars to use the mediums, which we didn't have," he said of the restart. "So yeah. I think at that point, it was probably a bit more nervous on the pit wall, but to still come out with seventh and six points, and nearly eight points, we got very close to George at the end, I think big picture, we have to be very happy.
"I was honestly trying as much as I could," he said of the late skirmish with Russell, eventually finishing just 0.550s down on the Mercedes. "It was a little weird, at the start of the stint, I didn't feel as good as towards the end. It felt like it took me a little bit to get a rhythm with the tyre.
"Then the last probably 10 laps, I was able to really start pushing harder, and yeah, I think Lando getting George probably hurt George's tyres a little bit, so that brought him back to me.
"It was tough," he smiled. "I probably didn't expect to get that close. When you're that close, you're like 'ah, we could've', but he protected well in Turn 4.
"At one point, I was trying to go on the outside, but I could see we were both going to run off and had to abort mission. He did well, he did well to defend.
"We tried, but I think ultimately, just to be battling a Mercedes at the end, that makes me more happy than just missing out on sixth."
His 6 points lifted AlphaTauri to 8th in the standings, and though catching Williams appears an impossible dream, it means a lot more (prize) money in the bank than tenth.
More importantly for Ricciardo however is the fact that he shone on a day Sergio Perez appeared to throw it all away at the first corner, placing further doubt on the Mexican's future.
"His confidence is coming up," said Horner of Ricciardo, when asked about the speculation. "Checo, we just need him to have a confidence-boosting result. He could have had it today but it wasn't to be but great to see Daniel looking like his old self."