Ricciardo angered by MISTAKE and insists he must 'do better'

Cal Gaunt
Saturday 4 November 2023 19:49 - Updated: 19:49

Daniel Ricciardo was clearly frustrated by his qualifying performance on Friday ahead of Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The AlphaTauri driver was eliminated in Q1, which came as a surprise to many considering the Australian's remarkable performance in Mexico a week earlier, which culminated in a strong points finish.

He's set to start the Interlagos race from P17, but hopes the improved pace shown by both him and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda during the Sprint Shootout on Saturday can inspire them to build and make moves through the midfield.

Addressing his and AlphaTauri's inconsistency across the first two days, Ricciardo believes there are things he can and can't be happy about.

Ricciardo rues qualifying mistake

“I’m not 100% happy," he told Sky Sports Italia. "I made a mistake yesterday [Friday] during Qualifying, and I wasn’t happy.

"I definitely did better today, but I can still do better since Yuki [Tsunoda] managed to be P6 [in the Sprint Shootout]. Our cars are in the top eight [for the Sprint race], so I’m happy about that.”

Ricciardo recently insisted that he is putting all of his efforts into trying to impress at AlphaTauri, despite rumours linking him with a move to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull in 2024.

not the quali we expected, with our focus now on how we can extract the performance from the car for the remainder of the weekend

full quotes on our website 👇

— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) November 3, 2023

"For the team, I haven't been here long but for them to be 10th in the Constructors Championship, and to jump two places in the space of two weekends was huge," Ricciardo said.

“I think that kind of creates a very happy atmosphere around everyone. I'm happy doing that and [will] try to just keep charging on where I am."

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