Ricciardo in difficulty
When Daniel Ricciardo had received the call from Alpha Tauri to return to Formula 1 after eight months of absence, the Australian had said that he felt the spark that he felt had gone out after the disappointing last season in McLaren rekindled.
The accident at Zandvoort and the subsequent five-race stoppage made Ricciardo’s readjustment rather complex.
And if in winter the 34-year-old Australian he hoped to have a chance to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bullafter just four races he feels his seat in Racing Bulls rather shaky. The start of the championship has not been at all encouraging and Ricciardo is regularly finding himself behind a growing Yuki Tsunoda.
Marko spurs Ricciardo on
Already in recent weeks, Helmut Marko had pushed Ricciardo to turn his season around, but the negative result in Suzuka – with the race ending in an accident shortly after the start – certainly did not lift the Australian’s prices. Marko thus analyzed his race Speedweek: “In a certain sense Ricciardo helped Verstappen, because with the stop to the race he was able to rearrange the adjustment of the front wing. However, Ricciardo was too cautious at the first corner and was overtaken left and right. This was then followed by a typical racing accident that can easily occur at the start.” On the contrary, there was no shortage of praise for Tsunoda: “Yuki made his way sensationally in his second start. His overtakings were the show of the day and the fans were in seventh heaven. He put in a performance on par with Max and Alonso. Without mistakes, he was super”.
