Helmut Marko gives his honest opinion on Daniel Ricciardo’s Hungarian GP performance with AlphaTauri

Daniel Ricciardo's run at AlphaTauri started with a P13.

Helmut Marko gives his honest opinion on Daniel Ricciardo’s Hungarian GP performance with AlphaTauri

Daniel Ricciardo (Credits: Autosport)

Australian F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo returned to F1 on the Hungaroring on Sunday. After avoiding an early DNF following a collision with Zhou Guanyu, he finished P13. He also beat his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who finished P15 due to a disappointing pit stop by the team. Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has spoken on Ricciardo’s performance after the race.

Helmut Marko hails Ricciardo’s performance as mature and confident. He also mentions that Ricciardo could have even finished higher if he didn’t lose places after Zhou drove into his back at Turn One at the start. Marko claims that Ricciardo’s positive attitude has also been good for AlphaTauri.

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“It was a very confident, mature performance. […] He lost three or four places right at the start due to the collision with Zhou. But 13th place is okay. Above all, the positive momentum that he brought to the team, also with a stabilization of the technical statements and changes. So the change worked out perfectly,” Marko said after the race.

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Yuki Tsunoda frustrated with AlphaTauri after the Hungarian GP

Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda (Credits: PlanetF1)

Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda didn’t have his best outing in Hungary as he finished P15, two places behind his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Post-race, Tsunoda very candidly questioned AlphaTauri’s strategies and called the entire grand prix a ‘waste’ with his frustration seemingly visible.

Tsunoda found himself happy with the car and its pace during the race. However, AlphaTauri’s questionable tire management strategies dampened his satisfaction. Additionally, Tsunoda also had an upsetting pitstop in the tenth lap of the race. To his dismay, the pit crew took a shocking 7.3 seconds to send the car back onto the track. This debacle caused him to drop to P17 from a hard-earned P11. Even though he fought well throughout the race, the Japanese could only go so far as P15 by the end.

“The race pace was good. I’m happy with the car, but we waste everything. The pace was good, but what we were doing was not working well, unfortunately. That’s it,” Tsunoda said after the race.

Despite Tsunoda’s discontent and not earning a single point in the weekend, AlphaTauri leaves the Hungarian GP satisfied. The team’s results are much better than they have been all season, and with Daniel Ricciardo’s comeback, they have a lot to look forward to.

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