Daniel Ricciardo’s ‘massive mountain’ warning as Silverstone performance discredited

Thomas Maher 19 Jul 2023 10:00 AM

Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda. July 2023.

Damon Hill believes it won’t be an easy ride for Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri, particularly having been off the grid for six months.

While much has been made of Daniel Ricciardo’s career-restoring performance in the Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix, Damon Hill believes the Australian faces a stern challenge over the remainder of 2023.

Ricciardo had been reserve and simulator driver for Red Bull and AlphaTauri following him losing his McLaren race seat at the conclusion of 2022, but has been given the opportunity to impress as Red Bull have loaned him to AlphaTauri as replacement for the struggling Nyck de Vries.

Damon Hill: Daniel Ricciardo has a massive mountain to climb

1996年F1世界冠军达蒙希尔说到F1 Nation podcastabout Ricciardo’s revival and said the next few months are not going to be easy for the Australian.

With Red Bull team boss Christian Horner revealing Ricciardo is treating his spell at AlphaTauri as an audition for a 2025 race seat alongside Max Verstappen at the senior team, Hill said Ricciardo first faces the task of beating Yuki Tsunoda – all without any proper testing, shaking off a lack of race fitness and sharpness, coming off the back of two years of poor performance at McLaren.

“When Daniel left [in 2018], it was all a bit of a shock to Red Bull,” Hill said.

“He left because, basically, he could see Max coming and I think he didn’t get that loving feeling.

“Now they’re giving him the loving feeling to come back. He’s still got to deal with, and beat, Yuki Tsunoda, and he’s got to really hit the ground running pretty quickly.”

Hill pointed out that the recent years proved that even the very best, such as a two-time World Champion, took quite a while to hit his stride – and that was with the benefit of a full pre-season testing programme.

“[Daniel] is going to have a massive mountain to climb to get back up to speed, it takes time,” he said.

“When [Fernando] Alonso was out for a bit, it’s not easy to just jump back in – it takes a bit of time to get all the neurons and the nerve endings firing again.”

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Pedro de la Rosa: Testing can often result in faster laptimes

Pedro de la Rosa, who spent most of his driving career as a test driver for McLaren (and a later stint at Ferrari), said testing isn’t representative of the true picture and can skew things in favour of drivers taking part in the tests.

The Spaniard said that Ricciardo’s impressive laptime from Silverstone, which was allegedly good enough for a front row start at the Grand Prix, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

“The test after a Grand Prix, normally the track – if it hasn’t been reset by rain – it’s normally faster,” he said.

“How many times we’ve been at the racetrack, where, you know, in Abu Dhabi, for instance, where after the Sunday on Tuesday and Wednesday, there is this test – the Pirelli test or Young Driver Test – and the times have always been faster than pole position?

“So we have to be careful about this. But you always have to compare yourself against the competitors. You know, during a Pirelli test, exactly what tyre compounds you’re running. So you also have to be very careful about what tyres are they, how much faster they can be, potentially, to the ones that your race drivers qualified with on a drying track on a Saturday in Silverstone.

“So there are many, many question marks.

“But, at the end of the day, you have the data, the teams analyse the data, they know exactly – they have a benchmark, they do it in a very professional manner.”

De La Rosa also spoke about the mindset of testing, saying it’s a far more relaxed environment and mentally easier for the driver as the pressure to immediately perform isn’t there.

“You always have to be careful, you know?” he said.

“The testing environment is a lot easier, I found it a lot easier when you know you have an unlimited set of tyres, to come into the pits, try again, try again, make mistakes, go wide, but you still always have another opportunity – it is not the same as in qualifying where you get one lap at the moment in last seconds of Q3 and you just have to deliver.

“It is a bit easier in testing, there’s a lot less pressure, but he was fast. At the end of the day, I’m sure that his neck was gone, you have to build the muscles. No matter how many hours you do in a gym, whenever you sit in a seat in a Formula 1 car, after a few laps, you can feel your neck, that’s 100 percent clear!”

Pedro de la Rosa: Daniel Ricciardo is joining AlphaTauri, not Red Bull

While Ricciardo’s return to F1 is being made possible by Red Bull, De La Rosa stressed that the Australian is not joining the World Champion team who are at the top of their game in every way, and nor will he be driving the compliant RB19 with which he impressed the bosses.

The Spaniard emphasised that AlphaTauri is a very different challenge, given the AT04 is not a competitive machine, and Ricciardo lacks the experience with them that he had with Red Bull.

“There is this point that Daniel is used to the Red Bull, because he’s driven for them, I mean, how many years he’s had with them?” he said.

“Five years, six years with the Red Bull team, so he knows the car, he knows very much the people, the simulator, the behaviour of the car, all the engine toys. He’s used to them, he has experience with the power steering of the car which also gives all the feedback of the front tyre, which is nowadays extremely important in a modern Formula 1 car.

“So let’s not forget that he’s not coming back to Red Bull, or a Red Bull car, he’s coming back to an AlphaTauri, which will mean that he will have to reset himself, the grip level will be different, how you feel the grip will be different.

“He will be driving the same engine, which is an important point. But there are many things that he will have to readapt – it won’t be an easy test like Silverstone has been, because he’s going to find a new environment.”