Ricciardo reveals reason for miserable F1 return

Anna Malyon
Wednesday 25 October 2023 22:57 - Updated: 23:29

Daniel Ricciardo has insisted that his recent return from a hand injury is 'no excuse' for his poor performance at the United States Grand Prix, instead blaming damage to his car.

The Australian driver made his comeback in Austin after being side lined since August due to a broken bone sustained in a crash at Zandvoort.

However, Ricciardo's return was far from positive, as he finished in the 17th position, later moving up to 15th after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc's disqualifications.

However, the Australian insisted that his disappointing result should not be put down to his hand injury, but rather ‘misfortune’ during the weekend.

“The hand is no excuse,” Ricciardo said to media after the Grand Prix. “I think that was good. We did well with the timing of the return to have no hesitations or excuses.

“Unfortunately, we picked up some damage. I told the team that, ‘I'm sorry, guys, I got nothing right now. I really can't do anything’. That made our race a pretty miserable one.

“At best, we’re a top-10 car and when you put damage into it, we are certainly out of the points. Definitely most of our day today was misfortune, let's say.”

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Moving Forward

Despite the poor performance in Austin, Ricciardo opted to concentrate on the positives and assured that he would come back stronger for the Mexican Grand Prix.

He also noted that it was encouraging that he managed to complete 56 laps without encountering any significant issues with his left hand.

“I actually felt probably worse [after the Saturday sprint race]...so maybe that was just a good little good warm up for me,” he added. “There's positives. Physically, it's definitely a tougher race. I still felt OK, we were just limited with damage.

“For sure, there's things which I take confidence from: some race fitness, the hand, a few things, which even just getting behind the wheel in FP1 like lap one, I felt like I was able to push and lean on it.

“There's certainly some inner confidence in that. But I would say in race conditions, next week I'll do better.”

Yuki Tsunoda, Ricciardo's teammate at AlphaTauri, secured an eighth-place finish and claimed the fastest lap in Austin, the team's best result of the season.

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