Thanks to a single moment, Daniel Ricciardo is putting a lot of pressure on Sergio Perez’s Red Bull F1 seat.
After losing his McLaren seat last year, Daniel Ricciardo was confronted with the possibility of never competing in Formula 1 again, but he managed to return to the grid at a place he was comfortable with.
Daniel Ricciardo has provided an explanation for how a single lap time has given him a chance to reclaim his former Red Bull spot.
The Australian was benched by McLaren at the beginning of the 2023 season. However, as pressure mounted on the faltering Nyck de Vries, he became the front-runner for an AlphaTauri race seat after rejoining Red Bull as a reserve.
The team decided to switch out the Dutchman for Ricciardo after ten races. That was after a private test at Silverstone in which the 34-year-old performed well.
When asked to relive that test, Ricciardo selected the instant he realized he had kept his Formula 1 career alive.
He said to the Beyond the Grid podcast, “I’m not going to sugar coat it—the first timed lap was on the money.””Max [Verstappen] was a few hundredths off.
I felt giddy as I entered that lap. It was like a qualifying lap for me. I simply felt confident and had that sense in the automobile.
Certain aspects of the vehicle felt incredibly familiar. I kind of assumed that it was capable of everything.
Though I won’t claim it was simple or painless, I felt rather confident in the car’s ability to perform as intended. Passing through.
