Marko delighted with Ricciardo: 'Driver change worked out perfectly'

Helmut Marko made the decision after the British Grand Prix to sack Nyck de Vries and put Daniel Ricciardo in the AT04 instead. At the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, the Australian was faster in both qualifying and the race, so Marko is particularly pleased.

Points were yet to come for Ricciardo, but that was also due to being hit hard by Guanyu Zhou on the opening lap. In the end, the Perth-based driver finished 13th, while Yuki Tsunoda had to settle for 15th place. A day earlier, the Japanese had also been beaten in qualifying as well (P13 at P17).

"It was a very confident and mature performance," Marko told Sky Sports Germany. "He lost three or four places because of the collision after the start. Thirteenth place is fine. But it's also the positive momentum he brought to the team and a stabilisation of the technical statements and changes - the driver change has worked out perfectly."

Ricciardo escapes DNF

Ricciardo himself is also satisfied, although he was disappointed to lose ground immediately at the start. "I felt I was hit from behind. And yes, that pretty much put me at the back. But at the same time, my next thought was: hopefully I don't hit anyone else and I can keep going. The worst that could have happened was that I had crashed out on the first lap," he tells Viaplay.

Indeed, it was especially important for him to do a lot of laps in the AT04, which was still new to him. "I knew I just had to drive laps today to learn. So as disappointed as I was that I got hit, I was also very grateful that the car was okay and that I could at least come back in the race. I knew that taking points then was pretty much impossible, but the focus then was on learning a lot. So from that point of view, I'm actually very happy with this day."