Ricciardo finally got the car with the right settings

Daniel Ricciardo deserves praise for his excellent performance in the Mexico City Grand Prix – on Saturday he set the fourth fastest time in qualifying in an AlphaTauri car and on Sunday he finished seventh in the race. This is the Faenza team’s best performance so far this year, moving it from last place in the Constructors’ Championship to eighth.

“We saw the old Daniel,” said Christian Horner, head of Red Bull Racing, after the race.

Commenting on the results, Daniel himself emphasized that such results were partly achieved because, together with the team, they managed to configure the car as he needed.

The authors of The Race analyzed the features of the pilot style characteristic of the Australian, and here are the conclusions they came to.

Ricciardo drives the car differently than Yuki Tsunoda, who is driving for AlphaTauri for the third season, and not like Pierre Gasly, who was the Japanese driver’s partner until this year. They prefer to brake later in corners and steer more aggressively – an approach often called ‘V-style’.

Daniel operates differently and therefore prefers a different approach to tuning the car, and in Mexico City the team from Faenza managed for the first time to tune his AT04 as he requested.

“He has a different driving style, and this doesn’t just require different mechanical or aerodynamic settings,” said Jonathan Eddolls, AlphaTauri’s chief racing engineer. “Because of the way he drives, he can warm up the tires in a different way and their temperature balance is different. We’re not talking about a noticeable difference, but we do see differences in his flying style.

He plays time in other parts of the rotation, which allows him to identify certain weaknesses typical of his partner. That’s why we have to go in a slightly different direction when setting up the car for Daniel.”

Ricciardo prefers to take corners at higher speed and his line looks more like a “U”. To do this he needs the rear of the car to be slightly unstable at the entry of the corner, but the grip must be sufficient so that the car can fit into it in the middle phase of the corner without the rear wheels falling. out.

When Daniel drove for McLaren, the British team’s cars were able to generate significant downforce, but it was not always possible to use it, which could cause the car to behave differently in different corners and in different conditions. not too stable. All this meant that the Australian could not fly as he wanted.

Lando Norris, although he regularly climbs the podium, emphasizes that he would like to take turns along a U-path, but the car does not allow that and therefore he has to use the V-pillar.

Ricciardo admitted that his problem at McLaren was precisely that he could not change his driving style. Norris succeeds, and now we see Oscar Piastri, who took Daniel’s place at McLaren, succeeding too. But as everyone saw last weekend in Mexico City, Daniel, behind the wheel of a car that suits him, can perform miracles.

In addition, AlphaTauri started experiments to find the settings Ricciardo needed immediately after the summer holidays in the championship, but this work had to be interrupted when he got injured and left the competition for a long time. Only in Austin did he return behind the wheel, but the weekend program there included a sprint on Saturday, and this is not conducive to normal car work. That’s why Daniel used the same settings in the US as Yuki Tsunoda.

They did not suit him, but in general it was already clear in which direction he had to work and in Mexico City the desired result was achieved, allowing Ricciardo to unleash the potential of the AT04 even better, because it was already configured taking into account with his preferences.

“He was seriously obstructed by the front of the car,” Eddolls said. “With a new approach to tuning we were able to make the front of his car work more efficiently and there was a compromise in terms of stability and how that affected tire temperatures in the corners and throughout the lap.”

Although the AlphaTauri doesn’t have the downforce generated by the McLaren’s aerodynamic chassis, it seems more stable and predictable on the track. This gives Ricciardo the freedom to corner as he pleases; he knows what to expect from the machine, avoiding the difficulties Tsunoda faces and pushing himself closer to the limits.

If the race had not been stopped by red flags, it is possible that Daniel could have finished fifth. The pace he was capable of in the final stretch suggested he could have held off George Russell, who overtook him after the restart. Norris was still far behind in such a situation, and it was not a fact that he would have been able to catch up with his former partner.