Fan favorite Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo made his much-anticipated return to the sport during this past weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. A while back, AlphaTauri canned rookie Nyck de Vries in exchange for the veteran racer, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that hopes were high for Ricciardo heading into the weekend. But before we can really tell if Ricciardo is back, let’s give him one more race to really figure things out. After the Belgian Grand Prix and heading into the summer break, we’ll be better able to evaluate where he is.
Ricciardo was joined driver Yuki Tsunoda in the hope that an experienced team leader would be able to help guide the stricken team back to success. As things currently stand, AlphaTauri is sitting at the very bottom of the World Constructor Championship standings, with Tsunoda having scored a meager two points by finishing 10th in both the Australian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix. De Vries theoretically should have proved himself an extremely capable driver after winning a championship in both Formula 2 and Formula E.
Ricciardo popping in as a replacement was assumed to come with a big increase in performance. And Ricciardo’s debut performance was a success, albeit one slightly tempered by the sheer weight of expectation that had been placed on his shoulders.
Let’s look at the facts. In qualifying, Ricciardo qualified in 13th, which placed him ahead of teammate Tsunoda, who would start the race in 17th. Despite being involved in a first-lap accordion effect, Ricciardo finished in the same position he started, while Tsunoda finished 15th.
Essentially, Ricciardo has taken the first step to success — but merely outperforming his teammate isn’t enough. The Australian driver is expected to do more than simply be better than Tsunoda; he’s been tasked with, essentially, dragging the team from the depths of the Constructors standings, because a team’s finishing position correlates to the amount of prize money it makes at the end of a season.
During the race start, Ricciardo was tagged by a fellow driver in an incident that was no fault of his own. After the crash, Ricciardo was back in fine form; he pitted, both for new tires and to get out of the dirty air of the Williams he had been trailing. His pace was rapid as he cut back the four-second deficit between himself and Logan Sargeant, but he was once again hampered by dirty air. Ricciardo suggested a pit stop just 11 laps later, which would get him out of the slow zone caused by dirty air but which would also force him to run the final 40 laps on one set of tires.
The call was the right one for Ricciardo; with nothing but clear air ahead of him, he was able to slice through the competition, which had largely settled for a long middle stint on hard tires. That pack — which consisted of Nico Hulkenberg, Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu — tried to hold onto their tires for as long as possible before pitting, which gave Ricciardo an advantage that he was able to manage through consistently quick lap times despite tire degradation.
On paper, Ricciardo’s results don’t look terribly promising, but a number in the finishing order never gives the full story. However, one brilliant strategy call isn’t enough to save a Formula 1 career, or a team. AlphaTauri will be looking to Ricciardo for yet another stunning performance in Belgium before F1 heads off for its mandated monthlong summer break — one that translates into some points.