Hungarian GP – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Tsunoda eager to benefit from Ricciardo arrival

Yuki Tsunoda believes he will benefit from the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri. Ricciardo will make his first start since replacing de Vries this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, marking a remarkable return to the team he last raced …

Yuki Tsunoda believes he will benefit from the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.

Ricciardo will make his first start since replacing de Vries this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, marking a remarkable return to the team he last raced for in 2013. Tsunoda has scored both of AlphaTauri’s points so far this year in a difficult car and has impressed with his progress in his third season in Formula 1, but the Japanese driver says he can learn from the experienced Ricciardo.

“I’m looking forward to working with Daniel,” Tsunoda said. “I can’t say I know him very well, but we had a fun day filming together earlier this year in Miami. I think I’ll benefit from having a very good, experienced driver as a teammate. I’m sure I can learn lots of things from him and I also expect he will be able to bring something to the team and move the car development forward.

“I would also like to say that I had an enjoyable time over the past 10 races with Nyck [de Vries]. I learned from him, and we also had a good time away from the track. He had plenty of experience in other categories and gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge. He had the pace and, as a friend, I enjoyed my time with him.”

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Whoever is driving an AlphaTauri normally has a lot of cars ahead of them in the races, although Tsunoda reckons the Hungaroring is one of the better chances for the team to shine. Jake Grant/Motorsport Images

The struggles that AlphaTauri has faced so far this season adds another aspect to the question of how Ricciardo will fare in his return to Formula 1, but Tsunoda believes the Hungaroring will be a better venue for its car than recent circuits.

“For this weekend, we have more upgrades for the race in Hungary, on top of those we brought to the last race,” he noted. “Budapest has completely different track characteristics compared to the past two races, and its slow-speed corners should suit our car better than the high-speed ones.

“I like the track — it’s technical, challenging and good fun. I have nice memories from my first F1 race there in 2021 as it was very chaotic and I finished sixth, after starting 16th! I’m optimistic — I always treat every race as a new opportunity where anything can happen. As a team, we’re very motivated to go forward and develop the car as much as possible.

“In my mind, I’ve had a complete reset from the last few races, especially Silverstone, and I’m in a positive frame of mind.”

Mercedes studying McLaren update

Mercedes can outdevelop its rivals for second place in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship and pull clear, but will try to learn from McLaren’s recent update package, according to technical director James Allison. McLaren joined the fight for …

McLaren joined the fight for best of the rest behind Red Bull at Silverstone, with a major upgrade propelling the team to second and third in qualifying, and second and fourth in the race. The pecking order has been fluctuating heavily between Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari already this season and Allison says there is still the potential for Mercedes to make a similarly significant step forward to be consistently second fastest on all tracks.

“We are only just round about halfway through the season and there is plenty more development to come in these cars,” Allison noted. “All of the teams will of course be turning their attention to next year and that will defang all of us a little bit in terms of the rate of which we can improve our cars.

“There are absolutely improvements that we would like to make on our current car that we know will also carry into next year. So it doesn’t feel like throwing good money after bad. The feeling is that you are investing in both seasons with those upgrades. For us yes, you will see the upgrades coming for a little while longer. I suspect for the others too.

“What you will get in this next sequence of races is a little bit of yo-yoing for position in a very closely packed bunch as upgrades make the difference for one team for a while, until someone else will come out of sequence with another upgrade a race or two later to even things back out. Where it will all settle down for the final quarter to one third of a season, we will see. Hopefully we will have our noses in front and be able to have a strong second half of the season.”

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Allison admits that McLaren’s progress impressed Mercedes as it delivered a clear step forward in raw lap time, even if track and weather characteristics were also favorable to Andrea Stella’s team over the past two races.

“We keep an eye on all the teams as they upgrade. We take lots of photos and we try and figure out what changes from race to race. We note when something new or unusual comes along. The interesting and unusual thing about the McLaren upgrade is that its lap time effect is quite strong. It’s unusual to have a step of that size of relative competitiveness in the middle of a season and chapeau to them.

“They’ve done a good piece of work there, but that also makes it interesting for us because we have the before and after shots and we know the lap time effect was big. So it’s well worth us paying more attention than we normally might to another competitor team’s upgrade because in this case, we know that whatever changed has made a meaningful difference to their lap time. It’s quite useful for us to know what that was and see whether it can play into our own thoughts of developing our own car.”

Ricciardo ‘not scared’ of AlphaTauri challenge to impress Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo says his recent struggles in Formula 1 mean he’s “not really scared of anything” as he gets ready to try and prove himself to Red Bull in an uncompetitive AlphaTauri. Nyck de Vries was dropped after just 10 races with the team, as …

Daniel Ricciardo says his recent struggles in Formula 1 mean he’s “not really scared of anything” as he gets ready to try and prove himself to Red Bull in an uncompetitive AlphaTauri.

Nyck de Vries was dropped after just 10 races with the team, as Red Bull is keen to evaluate Ricciardo’s potential following two tough seasons at McLaren. AlphaTauri has scored two points all year — both courtesy of Yuki Tsunoda — and sits at the bottom of the constructors’ championship, but the Australian says it’s the sort of environment that gives him the chance to show Red Bull he can handle adversity.

“I’m excited about it,” Ricciardo told Formula 1. “It’s a challenge for sure to jump in and try to hit the ground running, but I guess I feel like I’ve also been through a lot the last year — or the last few years — where I’m not really scared of anything that’s going to be thrown my way. So for that I actually really do like the challenge. And I say ‘challenge’ because yes, it will be a challenge, but I don’t know if I’d have it any other way.

“Going back to the start of the year, getting back into the Red Bull family, felt like full circle; now going back to AlphaTauri — which was once Toro Rosso — is all very full circle right now. But I understand this is my journey back, this is the process and the path and I’m ready to embrace it.

“The car will be what it is. I’m going to drive it and work from there. I don’t want to get too many preconceived ideas. I appreciate the car’s going to have its limitations. I’m sure they’re probably just lacking some overall downforce and things like this, but I think if it’s a car that feels balanced — it might not have as much grip as the Red Bull I drove a few days ago — that’s something I can work with.

“I’m looking forward to also developing it and using my experience. But ultimately, I think for Budapest, just go out and have fun, try and use more right foot than left and have a good time!”

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Ricciardo admits Red Bull will want to see him delivering in the car quickly but that it’s no different to when he was a younger driver at Toro Rosso and had to perform in the same manner to earn himself a promotion.

“They expect results, performances… Until I get back into a car it’s hard to define what that is. Is it a P8? Is it a P14? I don’t think there’s pressure until the summer break — obviously there’s two races and the summer break — I don’t think there’s a ‘you have to do this before August’ but I also don’t expect to get off to a slow start. I want to hit the ground running and try to use what I’ve learned in this time off, to put it to use.

“That’s why it feels a bit like back when I was working my way up through it, in the Red Bull family. It was like, ‘If you get results, we’ll keep pushing you.’ That’s really the mindset.

“I know (for) the team it’s been tough to get a points finish this year, a top 10, so to push this car and try to get it inside the top 10, I think that would get everyone pretty fulfilled and excited.”

Horner looking for Perez to rebound in Hungary

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is confident Sergio Perez will respond positively to his recent run of struggles at next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Perez has failed to make it through to Q3 for five races in a row, and was limited to …

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is confident Sergio Perez will respond positively to his recent run of struggles at next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Perez has failed to make it through to Q3 for five races in a row, and was limited to sixth place at Silverstone as a result. However, that marks the fourth time in a row the Mexican has made it back into the top six — with Austria seeing him finish third — and Horner believes there will be an upturn in qualifying form from him at the next race.

“He just needs to break it now,” Horner said. “He’ll do it in Budapest, I’m confident. The way he races, some of his moves –the one on Carlos Sainz in particular was quite stunning into Stowe. If you look at his pace in the last stint, he was right there. It’s frustrating for him that he’s having to fight back all the time but he’s just got to sort his qualifying out on Saturday and as a team we will do our best to support him on that.

“I think it’s just one of those things. As in all sport, 90 percent of it is in the head and I think he just needs a good run and he’ll find his momentum again.”

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Speaking before Daniel Ricciardo’s move to AlphaTauri was announced, Horner says Perez’s struggles in recent races should not be overplayed given his overall position in the drivers’ standings.

“At the moment, he’s still running second in the championship and I think he’s extended his lead over Fernando (Alonso). We’ve got a good car but we need to make sure we have both cars in contention.

“I think he’s the type of guy that just needs an arm around his shoulder. You work with him and that’s what we’re doing. We’re supporting him. We know he can do it and he’ll get back there. We’re just trying to do it as quickly as possible.”

McLaren set for Hungary upgrades and a further test of progress

McLaren will have further updates at the Hungarian Grand Prix that should give it a better read on how much of an overall gain it has made in terms of race pace. With new parts, Lando Norris finished fourth in Austria on a track well-suited to the …

McLaren will have further updates at the Hungarian Grand Prix that should give it a better read on how much of an overall gain it has made in terms of race pace.

With new parts, Lando Norris finished fourth in Austria on a track well-suited to the McLaren, and the team also felt the high-speed corners and low temperatures of Silverstone played a key role in its stunning pace that saw Norris qualify and finish second and Oscar Piastri end up fourth. Piastri was still lacking some of the updates at the last race but team principal Andrea Stella says both drivers will have an equally developed car in Budapest.

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“For Hungary we have some further upgrades that will help more from the point of view of trying to improve the race pace,” Stella said. “This will be available to both drivers — we don’t expect that the specification of the car will not be aligned between Oscar and Lando.

“Like any other team, we will carry on delivering some upgrades to the following races, and this is also thanks to the fact that once we started redesigning the car we kind of unlocked performance. In new iterations we keep seeing the aerodynamic development being quite effective. So as soon as you see a project is mature enough to deliver, you press the go button.”

Mercedes’ George Russell believes McLaren can be fighting to be the second-fastest team to Red Bull at all venues but Stella says Hungary will provide a much clearer picture of how big the team’s step forward has been.

“When it comes to whether this improvement will manifest itself in the future, even if George says that the tracks are different, actually there are significant elements of commonality between Austria and Silverstone; especially there is a high density of corners in which we know our car performs well. Conditions like (last Sunday), they do help because they don’t overheat the tires, which is also something on which we have some work to do. I hope George is right, by the way!

“In a way we look forward to Hungary to check more comprehensively where we really are. There is not as much high speed — if anything it is a low- and medium-speed dominated track and also you can have hot conditions, which is another testing territory for us. We will see.”