'Frustrated' Ricciardo Describes His Issue With Sao Paulo Sprint Race

Sunday, 05 November 2023 at 19:00

AlphaTauri F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo reflected on the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Race at Interlagos Circuit.

Daniel Ricciardo started the Sprint Race in the eighth place after a great Sprint Shootout result. However, the Honey Badger just missed point positions as he finished the Saturday race in P9.

The last point position was taken by Carlos Sainz, who did not have a better pace than the Australian but managed to keep him behind by impressive strategic defending. Ricciardo told the media after the race:

"The Sprint race certainly wasn’t boring. On one hand, it was nice to be in a battle, and I had fun out there, but I’m also really frustrated."

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Both AlphaTauri drivers started the sprint race from inside the top ten. Yuki Tsunoda, who started in P6, managed to finish the race in the same place, earning three points for the team.

"As we showed this morning by having both cars in the top 8, we definitely had the pace to score points, so congratulations to Yuki who did."

Ricciardo could also score the points, but the issue was every time he overtook Sainz into turn one, he would get overtaken back by the Ferrari driver with the help of DRS into turn 4.

"Every time I passed Carlos in Turn 1, he overtook me with the DRS afterwards. I'm also frustrated with myself for leaving the door open to Oscar, who passed me in Turn 8."

The Honey Badger will need to re-think how to go about overtaking drivers throughout the race on Sunday. The Australian driver mentioned he adapted his driving style in the middle of the race, which gained him some valuable lap time.

"Strategically, I can perform better moves tomorrow. Some things changed throughout the race, probably also because of the asphalt we have here, but I think I did well by adapting my driving style mid-race. In fact, we gained a lot from Carlos (Sainz) during the last couple of laps."