(Motorsports news) Ricciardo’s progress was hampered by a hand injury sustained during his third outing in Zandvoort, which cost him five races. In Mexico, however, he astonished the Formula One field by qualifying fourth and finishing eighth. Franz Tost, who will return to an advisory role at the end of the season, says he believed Ricciardo, who drove for the team as Toro Rosso in 2012 and 2013, would adjust quickly.
“Absolutely no doubts,” he said. “I had no doubts because Ricciardo is experienced and couldn’t have lost the ability to drive a fast F1 car. Once you know something, you don’t forget it.” And what he may have missed in the past was trust in the car and trust in the crew. As a result, he was unable to execute at the level that we know he is capable of.” Tost admitted that, despite looking quick from the outset of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, Ricciardo had outperformed expectations in qualifying.
“It was a positive surprise,” he remarked. “I expected him to be in the top six.” However, finishing fourth was an excellent achievement. “A very good performance in qualifying as well as the race, particularly at the start, when he was able to keep Lewis Hamilton behind him. And I believe the red flag was not good for Daniel.” Because we had to use the same hard tire after the restart, this cost him some of his performance. That was a disadvantage.
“But nevertheless, he drove a very, very good race and he brought it home in the seventh place.” Franz Tost emphasized that the resurrected Ricciardo will be an important part of the team in 2024. “It’s very important because the team needs one experienced driver,” he went on to say. “And Daniel is an excellent choice.” And I told him, “It’s all right now, because you’re in race mode.” And now we’re looking forward to Sao Paulo.”
AlphaTauri has scored 11 points in the last two races, moving from tenth to ninth in the constructors’ standings. Williams leads by 12 points, but Tost believes his squad can finish seventh in the remaining races. “I expected sooner or later that the team would make points because we were not as bad as it looked like,” he remarked when asked about the late surge. “But we’ve had some bad luck in the past, particularly with Daniel in Zandvoort.”
“I must also mention that engineers, particularly on the aero side, made significant advances, and the updates they brought to the car worked.” And it’s critical that we now get very strong aerodynamic performance. “If my math is correct, we are 12 points behind and could finish seventh.” We’ve only scored 11 points in two races. We still have three races left.
“If we put everything together, we might be able to come close, if not beat them.” Of course, that’s the goal.”
