Ricciardo Returns and Doesn’t Skip a Beat
After two disappointing seasons with McLaren, Australian Daniel Ricciardo left the team and stepped away from racing all together for the 2023 season. He instead accepted a reserve driver role with Red Bull, whom he had driven for from 2014-2018.
That was until a little over a week ago when it was announced that Ricciardo would be taking over for Nyck De Vries at AlphaTauri.
In his maiden race of the season this weekend at the Hungarian GP the Honey Badger did not disappoint.
He showed immediately that he wasn’t going to need time to shake off any rust as he outperformed teammate Yuki Tsunoda in practice sessions.
Though he got the better of his teammate, AlphaTauri’s pace was slow with Ricciardo ending session three in 18th while Tsunoda was 20th.
They both then experienced more success in qualifying with Ricciardo again getting the better of Tsunoda. Ricciardo drove well and given the cars limitations was impressive to qualify 13th while Tsunoda sat in 17th entering race day.
Starting 13th, challenging for points was plausible for Ricciardo heading into the race but a first-lap incident all but shattered those aspirations.
Ricciardo was hit from behind and forced off track by Guanyu Zhou entering turn one which pushed him to the back of the field where he would battle for positioning for much of the race.
A well timed and executed pit stop late in the race saw Ricciardo gain back his original position of 13th where he would finish the race. He was again ahead of his teammate as Tsunoda wound up in 15th.
All things considered the return to racing for the Aussie was quite positive with his strong qualifying run and the resilience he showed during the race itself.
Piastri with Another Strong Showing
Ricciardo’s fellow countryman Oscar Piastri once again impressed with a weekend that ended with him claiming P5. After finishing fourth in the last race at Silverstone the rookie is experiencing the best results of his young career.
After qualifying fourth, Piastri got off to a blistering start moving up to P2 with an inside move on turn one.
He would eventually fall to fifth with teammate Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Sergio Perez climbing in front of him. Nonetheless the weekend was a smashing success for Piastri and McLaren.
Piastri scored points in consecutive races for the first time, both top five finishes to make it even more impressive, while teammate Lando Norris has finished runner-up in back-to-back races as McLaren’s upgrades are paying off massively.
The two Australians outperformed expectations and rewards bettors who placed wagers on them at legal betting sites in the country.
Red Bull Rumours
Of course, with Ricciardo back behind the wheel of an F1 car and the notion that Red Bull may be looking to add him back as early as next season, the rumours were swirling throughout the weekend.
One moment in particular caught the eyes of those interested in the ‘Ricciardo to Red Bull’ drama. Prior to the race beginning Red Bull’s Helmut Marko and Christian Horner both went to Ricciardo’s car to wish him good luck.
Though this is not totally shocking given that AlphaTauri is the sister-team of Red Bull and Ricciardo has spent the first half of the year with Red Bull in the reserve driver role, it was enough to lead fans to speculate.
