The time for speaking is sort of over.
Quickly we are going to lastly see Daniel Ricciardo again on the observe, in his first race of the season with AlphaTauri.
The grid heads to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix, and earlier than issues get underway the AlphaTauri duo of Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda previewed the race for the media. For Ricciardo, the thrill begins with the mere reality that he’s again on the grid for a group he is aware of nicely.
“I’m stoked to be again. As all the time with the Pink Bull household, you need to be prepared for a name and when it got here I jumped on the alternative. The transition to AlphaTauri has gone easily,” mentioned Ricciardo. “Final week, I used to be again in Faenza, the manufacturing unit has modified rather a lot since I final raced for the group a decade in the past, however there have been nonetheless loads of acquainted faces and I felt at dwelling as we put together for the upcoming race.”
Ricciardo admits that there will probably be variations between driving the RB19 — as he did eventually week’s take a look at in Silverstone — and sliding into the cockpit of the AT04. However he insists that he’s as much as the problem.
“Once I drove the Pink Bull within the tyre take a look at at Silverstone final week all of it felt very regular. The AlphaTauri automotive will probably be what it’s. I’m going to drive it and work from there. I don’t wish to have too many preconceived concepts about it,” added Ricciardo. “I feel if it’s a automotive that feels balanced, that’s one thing I can work with. It’s going to be a problem, to leap in and simply hit the bottom operating, however I’m enthusiastic about it.”
Tsunoda outlined how he’s wanting ahead to working with Ricciardo, however did share some ideas about Nyck de Vries, his outgoing teammate at AlphaTauri.
“I’m wanting ahead to working with Daniel. I can’t say I do know him very nicely, however we had a enjoyable day filming collectively earlier this 12 months in Miami. I feel I’ll profit from having an excellent, skilled driver as a teammate,” mentioned Tsunoda. “I’m certain I can study numerous issues from him and I additionally anticipate he’ll be capable to deliver one thing to the group and transfer the automotive growth ahead.”
“I might additionally prefer to say that I had an pleasurable time over the previous ten races with Nyck. I discovered from him, and we additionally had fun away from the observe,” added Tsunoda. “He had loads of expertise in different classes and gave the group good suggestions primarily based on his information. He had the tempo and, as a pal, I loved my time with him.”
As for what to anticipate this weekend from AlphaTauri, Tsunoda believes that some upgrades, coupled with the configuration of the Hungaroring, ought to favor the AT04.
“For this weekend, we now have extra upgrades for the race in Hungary, on prime of these we delivered to the final race,” described Tsunoda. “Budapest has utterly totally different observe traits in comparison with the previous two races, and its slow-speed corners ought to swimsuit our automotive higher than the high-speed ones. I just like the observe, it’s technical and difficult, and good enjoyable.”
For Ricciardo, taming the Hungaroring comes right down to rhythm, and hoping you employ extra of the appropriate foot than the left.
“I’m wanting ahead to additionally growing the automotive and utilizing my expertise, and finally, I feel, for Budapest, simply exit and have enjoyable, attempt to use extra proper foot than left and have a great time! The important thing to this observe is getting right into a rhythm – you place so many corners collectively – and if the automotive is balanced, you possibly can actually have some enjoyable,” added Ricciardo.
The enjoyable begins in a couple of brief days.
