Ricciardo closed gap: 'It felt for me like a Red Bull car'

Daniel Ricciardo is back in Formula 1 after a ten-race absence. The Australian will take over Nyck de Vries' seat at AlphaTauri. Early this year, Dr Helmut Marko did not think he was good enough. What has changed in the meantime?

Ricciardo explains in Hungary to the press present at the FIA. Indeed, Ricciardo did perform simulation work for the team and team advisor Marko noticed that there was a big gap between Ricciardo's performance and Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at the start of the season. Still, Ricciardo will get his chance after 10 races.

The first question to Ricciardo is about a possible bet with Marko. At Renault, Ricciardo also had a bet with Cyril Abiteboul, which he won. But with Marko it is different. Ricciardo: "No bets." Verstappen sits at the press briefing and interjected: "He [Marko] likes his bets, but he actually goes quite far. [There is usually] quite a bit of money involved."

Ricciardo says he might consider a bet after the first few races, but then begins to explain why he managed to change Marko's mind: "I think what helped a lot was working with Simon [Rennie, Ricciardo's race engineer]. Back when I was racing there, he's been running the sims. So I think that as well, kind of getting a bit of familiarity, working with him kind of quickly, kind of got my confidence back."

Ricciardo continued: "Obviously, Max and Checo, who are very familiar with that car. But yeah, I think the really nice thing was that, let's say, once I shook off the cobwebs, although the car is different to five years ago or so, it still felt for me like a Red Bull car. So I still, I felt like everything that I used to really like about the car was still existing in like the DNA and then I think that as well filled me with some confidence that I could start to drive really the way that I like or the way I want."