Ricciardo Believes His Tsunoda Battle Is Positive Thing For AlphaTauri

Sunday, 17 December 2023 at 05:00

AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo, who joined the team midseason in 2023, suggested he and Yuki Tsunoda pushed each other, which helped the team.

Daniel Ricciardo initially didn't want to join an uncompetitive team that races at the back of the grid, and that's why he stayed out of the F1 seat ahead of the 2023 season.

However, the Honey Badger lately confessed he enjoyed driving for AlphaTauri a lot more than he initially expected he would, and it allowed him to regain his lost confidence and motivation.

Ever since the 34-year-old joined AlphaTauri, the team started doing much better in the Constructors' Championship and, in the end, jumped from last place to eighth place.

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Ricciardo mentioned he would like to think the progress happened partially thanks to him and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. He told the media:

"Obviously, I wasn't on board for the first part of the season. The way the team turned it around [was impressive] and obviously, the [car] updates. I would like to think Yuki and myself pushed each other a little bit. And that was positive for the team."

AlphaTauri went from being totally uncompetitive to almost matching Alpine's (which finished sixth in the Championship) pace. But, it was only a few races before the end of the season, and there wasn't enough time for the two drivers to close the gap even to Williams in the seventh place.

The Australian driver also recently revealed his team has quite big plans for the future, moving away from being a junior team and closer to Red Bull as it plans to become more competitive. He added:

"So I think the team can kind of be excited for moving into next year. Of course, seventh would be nice, but a few races ago, we were talking about finishing tenth. So the seventh was kind of a bonus. It gives us a little bit more to fight for next year."