F1 News: Daniel Ricciardo Explains Slow Pace - "Always Hold Myself Accountable"

At the US Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo faced both the challenges of a healing hand and a car he had little experience with. The Aussie's grit, however, was undeniable.

Key Takeaways:

Ricciardo's metacarpal injury was not a hindrance in his race.
An unfortunate brush with debris critically impacted Ricciardo's race day.
While Ricciardo faced struggles, team-mate Yuki Tsunoda secured 8th and clinched the fastest lap.

After a hiatus due to his crash at Zandvoort, resulting in a wrist injury, Ricciardo was back in action at the Circuit of the Americas. The AlphaTauri driver, brushing off any speculations regarding his hand affecting his performance, stated:

“Physically, it’s pretty good,” he said after the race. “I actually felt probably worse [after Saturday’s Sprint race]. I say worse. Obviously still okay, but I felt like I got out of the car probably sweating more. So maybe that was just a good little warm-up for me.

“I think there’s positives of the hand is no excuse. I think that was good. I think we did well with the timing of the return to kind of have no hesitations or excuses.

“Physically, it’s definitely a tougher race and I still felt okay, we were just limited with damage.”

Yet, the race day had more challenges in store for him. Encountering debris on the track led to significant aerodynamic issues for his car, notably damaging his brake duct.

The team corroborated this by highlighting the "significant loss of aero load and balance" they observed. Ricciardo’s recount of the event was poignant, as he mentioned:

“We lost a lot of pace very quickly… yeah, there’s damage to somewhere on the front of the car.

“I guess it was debris because they mentioned Stroll. I think we got close but I don’t think we touched. We must have picked up some debris somewhere and that made our race a pretty miserable one, I won’t lie.

“We’re at best a top 10 car, and when you put damage into it we are certainly out of the points.”

His race was further ruined by a poorly timed pit stop.

“Most of our day today was misfortune,” he admitted. “But for sure there is still some things to work on, for the team’s side but also for me.”

“Even in the first stint, I think the timing of the stop wasn’t great, but I don’t know, I’ll always hold myself accountable and be like ‘okay, could I have read that a little bit better, should I have tried to be more proactive?’

“I definitely did make it aware that I was going to probably lose time in traffic. I’ll always be a little bit critical of myself.

“For sure some things that we can do better, so I’m glad we don’t have too much of a break and I think also for my race fitness, just to keep smashing it out now I think is good. Today was a long one but I think we’ll quickly learn from this.”

The Circuit of the Americas was merely the beginning of a rigorous schedule, with back-to-back races in Mexico, Brazil, followed by a two-leg race in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. But Ricciardo, always the optimist, believes there’s a silver lining. Commenting on the future, he said:

“There’s things which I take confidence from… next week I’ll do better.”

In contrast, Yuki Tsunoda, Ricciardo's team-mate, gave AlphaTauri much to cheer about. By finishing 8th and setting the record for the fastest lap, he showcased his talents at the wheel of the AT04.

The US Grand Prix was a test of Ricciardo's mettle, but it highlighted that AlphaTauri may be down but not out.

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