F1 Expert Drags Daniel Ricciardo Back to Reality as Yuki Tsunoda Aces Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying

Daniel Ricciardo’s first few races after coming back from his hand injury has been exceptional. Not only did he manage an amazing points finish in Mexico, but his subsequent pace in Brazil, despite being a lap down due to red flag shenanigans, was also amazing. However, after a mediocre Las Vegas, and frankly, a disappointing Qualifying in the final race in Abu Dhabi, criticisms have started to flare up again.

In the Qualifying in Abu Dhabi, the Honey Badger marginally missed out on Q3. His car seems really good, especially with a recent major upgrade the team has brought in for Abu Dhabi. However, despite that, he was 2 tenths off from his Japanese teammate, which was more than enough for him to be eliminated in Q2. In fact, going into today’s race, he is starting from P15. 

F1 Journo passes judgment On Daniel Ricciardo’s Performance

Abu Dhabi is supposed to be a decent track for Scuderia AlphaTauri. Especially thanks to the new floor upgrades their team has brought in, the Australian would be kicking himself for not making further inroads in qualifying. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, put together an impressive performance, which saw him start P6 at Yas Marina, out-qualifying the likes of  Sergio Perez in his Red Bull and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. 

Peter Windsor, former Ferrari boss, spoke about this performance in his post-qualifying breakdown video on YouTube. He is of the opinion that Yuki Tsunoda gave Ricciardo a hard reality check, thanks to his amazing performance throughout the Qualifying. He is also confused as to why Ricciardo’s pace was a little off on Saturday. 

Speaking about this, he said, “Yuki Tsunoda, excellent job for AlphaTauri. He really showed up Daniel Ricciardo around Abu Dhabi. Why? I mean that’s the question. This should be a good circuit for Daniel Ricciardo. And the car is obviously good.  But Yuki Tsunoda, all over him, so all credit to him. He kept up that pace all throughout qualifying as well. Daniel didn’t make it out of Q2 when he was 0.2 slower than Tsunoda.”

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This weekend was extremely crucial for Ricciardo, and the Italian team in general. They were fighting tooth and nail for the seventh position in the constructors’ championship with Williams. While the duo of Ricciardo & Tsunoda did everything in their capacity, they could not knock off the points deficit to clinch 7th

Abu Dhabi GP heist falters for AlphaTauri

The fight for seventh in the constructors had become really tight. The margins were slimmer than it has ever been in this season for AlphaTauri and Williams with only 7 points separating the two teams. Thanks to Ricciardo’s amazing performance in Mexico, the Italian team gave themselves a real shout at finishing ahead of Williams in the constructors.

Come Abu Dhabi, Tsunoda was in prime position to knock that deficit off, starting in 6th. While he had a wonderful race to pull off a one-stop strategy, the Japanese prodigy could not finish in 6th that could have single-handedly gotten all the points AlphaTauri needed to beat the Grove-based team. Tsunoda finished P8, while Ricciardo pushed to his level best to try & get in the points. Eventually, he was left just on the fringes of the top 10, finishing in P11.

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This helped Williams retain P7 by a mere 3 points. Regardless, this leaves the Faenza team in a much better competitive state. Going into 2024, they would hope to capitalize on this late-season momentum. With a rename & better collaboration with Red Bull on the cards, we may see a change in fortunes for the Italian team.