“I felt there were some things to show”: Daniel Ricciardo confident the old him is back after a stellar qualifying in Mexico

Daniel Ricciardo feels back to his old self after securing fourth place on the grid in the qualifying session ahead of the 2023 Mexican GP. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda after the session, the AlphaTauri driver was elated with his result and confident looking forward to the race.

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost had mentioned in Friday's press conference that the ‘old Daniel’ would be back in Brazil. The Austrian boss, who has known the Australian’s potential since his debut with the Faenza outfit in 2012, felt that it was a matter of time before Daniel Ricciardo was back to his old winning ways.

Qualifying to a front row for the first time since Spa in 2021, the performance is a significant confidence booster for the 34-year-old, who is eyeing his old Red Bull seat for the 2025 season. He also outpaced local hero and his old Red Bull seat occupant Sergio Perez, who will start behind him in fifth place.

Asked by Sportkseeda if the ‘old Daniel’ was back, Daniel Ricciardo replied:

“Yeah I think so, I felt it. To be honest even during in the week before arriving here, I was already, I was thinking of driving a lot more, in terms of just hanging out for it to be Friday and get back in the car. I felt like there was some things to show and also some things to try with the car, with the setup that I was confident could work and help me get a bit more out of the car. So already kind of before the weekend feeling a little bit hungry lets say, in a positive way, like a chip on my shoulder. And from lap 1 yesterday I felt good and really all weekend I think we were a well inside the top 10 car. I think this morning we were still there P9 but honestly I was not happy with my lap this morning, so I knew that we were we could show more than that.”

Describing the momentum through the qualifying session, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“You never know in quali, everyone turns it up, but I was confident in myself that I could definitely get some more tenths out of the car. And in Q1, Q2 Yuki was great he gave us a tow, just to obviously make sure we got into Q3. But then in Q3 we didn’t have a tow and we still showed really good pace. I think the coolest thing about today is, it wasn’t like ‘Ok, they did it but they gained a couple of tenths from a tow’. You know we had raw pace and actually the last lap I crossed the line pretty angry because I didn’t improve. I was up in the first sector and then we slowly lost it through the lap and I was like ‘Ok’, I kind of threw that one away. But by the sounds of it, no one really improved to the end with the second set of new. So maybe the track kind of fell away, so that made me feel a little bit better.”

Confident of the momentum that built up towards the qualifying result throughout the weekend in Mexico, Daniel Ricciardo asserted that he was anticipating a more improved form in Mexico. The Australian had told Sportskeeda after an unfortunate Austin GP performance, that Mexico would be much better.

Describing the build-up towards Saturday, the Alpha Tauri driver felt that from the first practice session itself, on Friday, he knew there were some setup changes made to the car that could help him maximize potential and target a better result.

Clocking the third fastest time in Q1 and the fourth fastest in Q2, Daniel Ricciardo admitted he was aided by teammate Yuki Tsunoda who gave him a tow. However, in Q3, where the Australian was unaided, he reckons they had the natural pace and potential to secure the fourth place on the grid.

He was approximately a tenth slower than reigning champion Max Verstappen and a tenth quicker than Perez. Despite splitting the Red Bulls on pure pace, the 34-year-old claimed he was disappointed after not improving on his final attempt in Q3. However, with other drivers not improving either and him not getting dropped further down the grid, the result was satisfactory in the end.

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Daniel Ricciardo reckons their qualifying performance in Mexico was not a fluke

Daniel Ricciardo reckoned the AlphaTauri qualifying result was not a fluke and an outcome of circumstances favoring them. He believes the AT04 had a natural pace and was also close to others at the front.

The former Red Bull driver claimed that setup changes on the AlphaTauri such as improved corner entry have helped him unleash his potential. He feels that the car he is driving this year gave the notion from the Hungarian GP itself that it was one that he could work with and feel his old self again.

Asked if setting a good banker (first) lap itself was a positive boost to his overall confidence with the car, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Yeah it definitely helps, it definitely helps when you can put in a good first lap. I knew the first lap was good, I knew it was going to be hard to get much more out of it. I definitely felt there was a tenth or so and I saw yeah first sector I was up, it just started slowly getting away. Obviously P4 is amazing but then you look at pole, its two tenths. It’s not like Max or someone is seven eight tenths down the road. So that’s, the gap is just as cool as the position if you know what I mean, we are really there and who knows what it means for tomorrow. But I don't think today is a fluke, we really had strong pace. I felt with the perfect lap like going through it in my head last night, I thought maybe today we can be a P6, P7 if everything goes well. So I definitely had confidence we had a P10 car, P4 is pretty cool.”

Asked if there was anything in particular that was changed on the car in Mexico in particular, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Yeah definitely its corner entry I think. You know as drivers we’ll complain about a lot of things, we want more traction, we want this we want that. But obviously, if you can have that confidence in the corner entry, thats where it all starts. And then you get the entry right, it then helps the mid corner helps the exit. Yeah just that kind of confidence I’ve had, turning the car into the corner has been really important. Even when I first drove it in Budapest, I think we qualified 13th or something, it wasn’t the fastest car but it gave me a feeling which I knew it was something I could start to build on and start to drive to my strengths and feel a little bit like my old self.”

In Austin, Daniel Ricciardo had admitted to Sportskeeda that the internal joke in the garage was that they do not qualify higher than P11. However, with his momentum in Mexico, he has definitely gained the confidence to finish in the top 5 in the race. He attributed his confidence primarily to the characteristics of the car.

Starting fourth on the grid in the race, it will be important for Daniel Ricciardo to secure solid points with the opportunities available, as it could be a significant turnaround for AlphaTauri who are currently last in the constructor’s standings.