Daniel Ricciardo emerged from the Mexican Grand Prix, clinching the seventh position, marking AlphaTauri’s most impressive performance of the season, thus elevating the team to the eighth spot in the championship standings. Ricciardo, however, harbors a belief that a more illustrious outcome was within reach.
In the tumultuous race at Mexico City Grand Prix, Ricciardo displayed robust confidence, aiming for a remarkable fifth-place finish, but the journey was marred by an unforeseen red flag incident.
The race faced an abrupt pause on the 33rd out of 71 laps, triggered by Kevin Magnussen’s tumultuous high-speed rear suspension failure, culminating in significant barrier damages at Turn 9. Ricciardo, holding the fifth position at this juncture, witnessed a reshuffle post the resumption.
The AlphaTauri stalwart found himself overtaken by George Russell’s Mercedes and later by an aggressively advancing Lando Norris. Ricciardo, despite staging a fierce late-game challenge against Russell, ultimately secured the seventh position, embodying the pinnacle of AlphaTauri’s achievements since Pierre Gasly’s triumphant fifth-place conquest at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Ricciardo’s commendable point acquisition propelled AlphaTauri forward in the Constructors’ table, allowing a graceful ascent from the bottom, positioning them eighth with a cumulative 16 points for the season, thus outpacing Alfa Romeo and Haas in the competitive tally.
Ricciardo reacts to Russell battle
“I don’t know if Lando’s pace in that second half of the race was as good as the first half because he was very quick,” Ricciardo told media.
“We were holding Oscar [Piastri] at bay, at least at that moment. I was like ‘This could be a nice, lonely fifth place’ and I was okay with that.
“So I definitely think we could have been better than seventh, let’s say that, without the red flag. But that’s racing.
“On one hand, you could say [it was] unlucky but still it can always be worse.
“The restart, we could have had a crash or something, so to come through, I’m happy.”
In his late attack on Russell, Ricciardo explained how Norris actually helped the Mercedes fall back into his clutches after scything past.
“Lando getting George probably hurt George’s tyres a little bit, so that brought him back to me,” said Ricciardo.
“I probably didn’t expect to get that close. At one point, I was trying to go around the outside, but I could see we were both probably going to run off so I had to abort the mission.
“He did well to defend. So 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.”
