Daniel Ricciardo reckons there was a chance to score if not for the incident on Lap 1 in F1 Hungarian GP upon his return.
AlphaTauri’s Ricciardo had a decent return to F1 in Hungarian GP after qualifying in 13th and finishing at the same place after an incident on Lap 1. He was hit by Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu into Turn 1 which cost him time and places.
He managed to hang on and eventually ended up 13th but he was satisfied with the result and felt to be on pace after such a gap. “It was a welcome back,” said Ricciardo. “I feel like it’s probably like your first NFL game, someone is going to put a big tackle on you to welcome you to the sport. So, I guess it was a version of that.
“Obviously, that was disappointing to just be out of position from the start, with that incident. As soon as I got hit, obviously I knew I was pretty much going to go to the end of the field, the tail. I was immediately obviously disappointed. Fortunately, the damage was really minor, and I could get on with it. After that, we made a good race.
“I’d say it was pretty much impossible from the tail of the field to get anywhere inside the points. But I think we still put on a strong showing. I felt good. I felt good in the car and that was something that was certainly a question mark, not doing it for eight months, especially around here it’s a tough track. So, other than Lap 1, Turn 1, a good day.
“I felt good in it. Obviously, we are operating at a little lower level of grip than the front cars. It feels relatively balanced, I just think we need to try and find some overall downforce. And try to keep chipping away at it. It’s my first weekend, I’ll keep learning as well as we go, but try to also give the team as much feedback as I can.
“Being in the DRS train, that was really important. It would have probably been a much more discouraging race. And as you mentioned, maybe still a lot of questions to be answered. So just having the pace, having the clear air, making a few mistakes, learning from those, knowing what the car likes, what it doesn’t – I think I learned a lot from the race,” summed up Ricciardo.
Here’s how F1 Hungarian GP panned out