Ricciardo Thinks His Team 'Definitely Missed Something' Last Weekend

Wednesday, 22 November 2023 at 14:00

AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo lamented his unsatisfactory result at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

AlphaTauri car showed a very promising performance in Sao Paulo, where Daniel Ricciardo's teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished in ninth place, collecting 2 points for his team.

Ricciardo regretted being unable to show his speed after falling victim to the first-lap incident in Brazil. The Australian driver probably looked forward to the race at Las Vegas Strip Circuit, where he could bounce back.

However, AlphaTauri cars lacked speed from the beginning of the weekend. Starting from P14, the Honey Badger could not improve his qualifying result and finished the Grand Prix race in P14. He told the media:

"We've definitely missed something here this weekend, getting the tire working on the slippery asphalt when it's still cold or a new tire."

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Multiple drivers struggled with keeping temperatures in their tires. Ricciardo described this issue as most prevalent for him during safety car restarts.

"Even with that, I felt okay after a couple laps we got some temperature and then be able to kind of get back on to the pack. I think the restarts didn't help us."

The 34-year-old went for a one-stop strategy and managed to overtake a couple of drivers towards the end of the race, but it wasn't enough to score points.

"Once it settled, there was a few cars fading at the end of the race. We had a little bit more pace than them."

AlphaTauri might have hoped to score some points in Las Vegas to catch up with Williams in the seventh place in the Championship. Ricciardo concluded:

"But we still weren't on top of Top 10 cars, so it is unfortunate. I'm going to go glass half full. Our rivals didn't score, so it gives us a little glimmer of hope next week to still have a crack."