Ricciardo’s Qualifying Riddle: Tsunoda Scores, He Doesn’t

The final Grand Prix of the 2023 Formula 1 season in Abu Dhabi presented a perplexing challenge for Daniel Ricciardo, as the seasoned Australian driver found himself consistently outpaced by his AlphaTauri teammate, Yuki Tsunoda. Despite AlphaTauri bringing significant upgrades and harbouring ambitious goals for the constructors’ championship, Ricciardo struggled to match Tsunoda’s rhythm and pace throughout both qualifying and the race, leaving him and the team searching for answers.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was more than just another race for AlphaTauri; it was a crucial battleground in their fight for seventh place in the constructors’ standings against rivals Williams. Every single point was vital for the team’s financial and competitive future. Yuki Tsunoda, demonstrating impressive form, managed to secure a commendable eighth-place finish, earning four valuable points. Notably, he even spent five laps leading the race strategically, a highlight that underscored his strong performance. These points, however, still left AlphaTauri three points adrift of Williams by the checkered flag, highlighting the tight margin in their championship aspirations.

Conversely, Daniel Ricciardo’s weekend was fraught with difficulties. After a challenging qualifying session saw him start from 15th position, he faced an uphill battle from the outset. Throughout the race, Ricciardo spent only a brief six laps running within a points-scoring position before ultimately crossing the finish line in 11th. Reflecting on his performance, Ricciardo admitted that recovering from such a low starting grid slot proved incredibly difficult in the competitive midfield.

“It wasn’t a bad race, per se,” Ricciardo commented post-race, trying to contextualize his efforts. “We certainly had decent pace once we were in clear air, but as soon as you get into a little bit of dirty air, it just makes everything so much harder. The car felt responsive, but overtaking was a real challenge.” He continued, expressing a tinge of disappointment, “I really feel like we could’ve gotten a few more points, which would have been hugely beneficial for the team. But honestly, starting so far back just put us on the back foot slightly from the very beginning. It’s good that Yuki got some points – that was excellent for the team, and he drove a great race – but realistically, we needed a little more collective effort to achieve our constructors’ goal.”

Ricciardo’s race was further complicated by an unforeseen incident. While he started at a significant disadvantage compared to his teammate, lining up a considerable nine places behind him, his potential for a stronger performance was hampered by a piece of visor tear-off finding its way into one of his brake ducts. This unfortunate occurrence necessitated an unscheduled early pit stop, undoubtedly impacting his strategy and track position. However, with characteristic pragmatism, Ricciardo downplayed the overall significance of this issue on his final race result, suggesting it was not the sole determinant of his points-less finish.

“I definitely need to review the data and see exactly how much that tear-off incident affected us,” he explained. “Because I think for a two-stop strategy, which we were largely aiming for, we would have probably pitted a little bit later anyway. So, I don’t know if it maybe put us in a little bit of traffic or pushed us off-sequence too much. On initial assessment, I don’t think it was a major factor in the grand scheme of things. It certainly didn’t help, but it wasn’t a race-ender for us by any means. We were able to manage it effectively.”

Despite the setback, Ricciardo maintained a positive outlook on his recovery drive. “We still, I would say, recovered well after that, and had what felt like a decent race in terms of pace compared to some of those around us,” he reckoned. “There are always ‘ifs’ and ‘whats’ and ‘maybes’ in Formula 1, especially in a chaotic race. I felt like if we had just one more lap, we potentially could have caught Stroll or, at the very least, we would have certainly gotten his DRS and had a chance at him for that final point. To be one lap away from a potential point, which is not too bad given where we started and the issues we faced, shows there was some underlying potential.”

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While Tsunoda experienced a slight drop in positions from his impressive starting grid slot, ultimately losing two places, Ricciardo managed to climb four spots from his initial 15th position. This indicated a reasonable race pace from the Australian, a sentiment he echoed. Ricciardo expressed confidence in his Sunday performance but readily admitted that his qualifying pace remained elusive throughout the weekend. He openly confessed that he did not “quite get fully on top of it” when it mattered most on Saturday.

The qualifying sessions at both the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix were particularly frustrating for Ricciardo, who candidly referred to them as the “Achilles’ heel” of his race weekends. “I’ll absolutely take some responsibility for that,” he stated, acknowledging his part in the struggle. “Not maybe putting the best lap together when it counted. There were moments where I felt like I could extract more, but it just wasn’t coming together.” However, digging deeper into his post-qualifying reflections last weekend, he admitted a more fundamental issue with the car’s performance. The AlphaTauri AT04, he said, felt inexplicably slow “from the moment we hit the track” in qualifying. This profound lack of pace, especially in contrast to Tsunoda’s speed, remained a significant mystery to him and the team.

The mystery was further compounded by AlphaTauri’s strategic decision to introduce a major floor upgrade for the final race of the season. This highly anticipated aerodynamic enhancement was expected to provide a significant boost in performance, creating high hopes within the team and for Ricciardo himself. “We were quite optimistic with the new floor and a few positives we found from that,” Ricciardo elaborated. “The simulations and initial data looked promising. I think it was just trying to put it all together and make it work optimally on track.”

The team had made a few setup adjustments between the final practice session and qualifying, hoping to unlock the full potential of the new floor and the car. However, these changes yielded minimal, if any, positive effect. “We had a couple of little things we tried to understand after changing our set-up between final practice and qualifying,” he noted, “but it really didn’t translate into the performance we were looking for. Even with a brand new set of soft tyres in Q2, we frustratingly didn’t improve our lap time from Q1.”

This lack of progression, especially given the natural track evolution and rubbering-in, struck Ricciardo as particularly odd. “With track evolution, and things like this which normally give you a time advantage, it was quite strange. Nothing fundamentally felt off with the car, there were just a few corners where you were fighting it a little bit more than ideal, but honestly, it just felt like we didn’t have the raw speed that Yuki seemed to find. And for now, it really remains a little bit of a mystery how we were so far off.”

Ricciardo had entered the weekend with genuinely high hopes, buoyed by the prospect of the significant floor upgrade AlphaTauri brought to Abu Dhabi for the season’s closing race. This was seen as a final, desperate bid to secure seventh in the constructors’ championship, injecting an air of anticipation and excitement into the garage. The Australian driver had publicly expressed optimism about the potential gains.

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“I definitely felt like we were going to be a Q3 car,” said Ricciardo, articulating his pre-weekend confidence. “Obviously it’s never guaranteed in Formula 1, as I stand here after the fact. But we were certainly very confident that we had the tools to get into the top ten. What transpired was the opposite: [Tsunoda] made significant progress and found pace, while we regressed, we actually got worse in terms of relative performance. And what makes it even more puzzling is that we didn’t really experiment with anything crazy or radical with the setup, so for now, it truly is a bit of a mystery that needs thorough investigation.”

Adding another layer to the enigma, Ricciardo revealed that Yuki Tsunoda had actually moved his car’s setup closer to Ricciardo’s baseline during the weekend. This convergence of settings made the significant disparity in performance between the two AlphaTauri drivers even more bewildering. “We actually ended up pretty similar with our set-up,” Ricciardo clarified, offering full transparency on the situation. “He came closer to us from Friday’s running, so by qualifying, we actually ended up with a pretty similar car in terms of fundamental settings. And I think that’s kind of why it feels a bit more of a mystery, where from really lap one today, he was consistently ahead and finding that extra tenth or two.”

Ultimately, Ricciardo pinpointed a crucial feeling, or rather the lack thereof, as the core issue. “The main thing was I just didn’t feel a peak in the tyre, or a peak in the grip,” Ricciardo added, expressing the fundamental sensation that was missing. “It was simply that; I couldn’t get the tyres to switch on and deliver their maximum potential when I needed them to for that ultimate lap time. But precisely why that was, whether it’s a car characteristic, a setup issue we haven’t identified, or something else entirely, we absolutely need to understand before we move forward into the new season.” The conclusion of the 2023 season, therefore, leaves AlphaTauri and Daniel Ricciardo with pressing questions as they look to diagnose and resolve the unexplained performance gap that emerged in Abu Dhabi.

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