A tenth-place finish which turned into a P8—AlphaTauri’s best result of the season. Plus the fastest lap of the race at the US GP. Oh, how Daniel Ricciardo would’ve loved to have those stats to his name, especially after a five-race hiatus. Unfortunately for him, they weren’t his to brag. They were his teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s. While one side of the AlphaTauri garage was elated, Ricciardo’s side wasn’t in the mood for celebration, especially because of how hard the Honey Badger was on himself.

Coming back from an injury isn’t easy. A metacarpal fracture on the left hand wrote Ricciardo out for five races—from Zandvoort to Qatar. Returning to his racing seat at COTA—his favorite track—he, understandably, had expectations of himself. So when he couldn’t meet them, he beat himself up for it. But as the Mexican GP nears, he’s already looking to make amends.

Daniel Ricciardo has gone from “miserable” to motivated

If you’re wondering where Ricciardo finished in comparison to Tsunoda’s P8, it was a P17 that turned into a P15. His racing return wasn’t the smoothest, with brake duct issues due to debris. Going into the race, he knew the AT04 had the potential for a top-10 finish, especially considering its recent upgrades. Seeing as his teammate achieved that, and he didn’t, the Aussie was disheartened.

“At best, we’re a top-10 car and when you put damage into it, we are certainly out of the points,” Ricciardo said. “Definitely most of our day today was misfortune. I told the team, ‘I’m sorry, guys, I got nothing right now. I really can’t do anything.’ That made our race a pretty miserable one.” But the past is of little consequence, and Ricciardo knows that which is why he’s shifted his focus to Mexico.

Taking the positives from Austin, the AlphaTauri certainly has the pace for good results, unlike how it started the season. In light of this, Ricciardo predicted AlphaTauri’s form going forward. As quoted by f1-gate.com, he said, “I enjoyed the whole [US GP] experience, even though it wasn’t always smooth on the track. Especially in the race, I had some damage that affected the car a lot. But overall, starting this weekend in Mexico, I’m positive that we can aim for points in the remaining races.” [Translated by Google]

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Although the Honey Badger is fully focused on getting back on track—literally and figuratively—at the Mexican GP, he couldn’t help but cause a bit of a worry for every Danny Ric fan.

What contributed to Daniel Ricciardo’s miserable return?

After McLaren sacked Ricciardo at the end of 2022, he was without a seat. Red Bull took him in as its reserve driver, and when the opportunity to drive for AlphaTauri presented itself, he took it with both hands. But two races into his return, bad luck struck again in the form of that fracture. It’s safe to say that Ricciardo isn’t as experienced as the other drivers on the grid this year. That’s exactly what caught him out at the US GP.

In the Sprint, he started in P11 and finished in P12. while that’s not too bad; he wasn’t too happy. In a post-Sprint interview, Ricciardo said, “I’m feeling alright. That was a big thing I think also, taking enough time off that I come back and I’m not ‘I had a bad result because my hand hurts.’ I think today [compared to Friday] was better. I hate saying this because I am very experienced, but this year I’m not experienced. So there was maybe a little bit of race rust, a few little decisions on the track where I was like, ‘I should know better.’”

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How do you think Daniel Ricciardo will fare at the Mexican GP this weekend? Can he achieve his first top-10 finish of the season?