Daniel Ricciardo’s comeback, Sergio Perez under pressure, driver market, silly season, rumours, Mexico City Grand Prix analysis

Daniel Ricciardo was surprisingly plucky for a man who’d finished his previous race stone-cold last.

Just days before arriving in Mexico City, Ricciardo had trundled to 15th at the United States Grand Prix, his first race back from a broken hand ending anonymously a lap down from the leaders.

And yet here he was seemingly brimming with confidence for his second crack behind the wheel.

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“I got back to the hotel Sunday night and I wished it was Friday in Mexico already,” he said. “I was certainly pretty hungry to keep going after Austin.”

Months on the sidelines undoubtedly contributed to Ricciardo’s eagerness to strap back into the cockpit, but the keenness ran much deeper. In the wreckage of his Texas result were clues he was sure could be pieced together into something more competitive.

“There were some things that we discovered after the race that made me want to just get back on track and prove that we do obviously have some pace,” he explained after a positive Friday of practice in Mexico.

“I think there were things that, if it wasn‘t a sprint weekend, we would have tried on the car. We were able to obviously try that today, and I think really from the get-go I was certainly comfortable.

“Coming from Austin, we already started with a different set-up today … then we just chipped away at it.

“I was just ready to go. I was ready to go Sunday night. It’s good to drive today. I’m very hungry and motivated, and it feels good.”

The Aussie ended the day sixth quickest and with an optimistic outlook.

What came next defied even those expectations.

SATURDAY: ‘I JUST WANT TO RIP MY SHIRT OFF!’

Ricciardo said on Friday that he was sure the AT04 was a top-10 qualifying car — no small claim for a machine that had cracked Q3 at just four previous races this year and never qualified higher than eighth.

But the AlphaTauri car has changed a great deal over the season, including during the time that Ricciardo was sidelined with his broken hand.

A major upgrade at the Singapore Grand Prix added much-needed aero load, immediately enabling Liam Lawson to score points at the tricky street circuit.

Ricciardo had a chance to play with the upgraded car in the simulator only, and in the United States he got only one hour of practice to reacclimatise to F1 before locking in his weekend set-up — reportedly effectively a ‘vanilla’ configuration sheet just to get him going.

In Mexico, however, he had the full three hours to experiment with what the new car had to offer, and in doing so he settled on a more personalised set-up that allowed him to drive the car instinctively, something he hadn’t been able to do at McLaren.

His McLaren cars wanted to be thrashed through the corners — hard on the brakes, rotate sharply, hard on the power — but they also suffered with instability on corner entry that made the whole process unpredictable. It’s something with which Ricciardo never got on terms.

But the AlphaTauri is a more stable platform. Ricciardo has been able to manipulate the aero balance with greater precision through set-up, which is allowing him to be smoother through the corners while maintaining a higher minimum speed — his natural style.

Nailing that set-up counted for a lot in Mexico, where the thin air at altitude means grip is always low. Having a dependable car balance you can trust counts for much when you’re sliding through the fiddly corners.

In Q1 and Q2 AlphaTauri guaranteed Ricciardo’s progression by deploying Yuki Tsunoda — who would start last with engine and gearbox penalties — to slipstream him down the straights.

But in Q3 he had only his own ability, and he pulled off a magnificent fourth, behind only the Ferrari drivers and Max Verstappen and just 0.216 seconds off pole.

It was an affirming result for what Ricciardo was bringing to the table to the backmarker team.

“With these things you either get those happy tears or you get just jacked up and pretty fired up, and that’s certainly how I feel,” he said. “Lots of good energy right now. I just want to rip my shirt off!

“There were a few things that didn’t go our way last weekend. I certainly carried a little bit of a chip on my shoulder this week.

“Coming into the weekend I just couldn’t wait to get back in the car. I was as excited and hungry as I felt in a very long time, so I’m really happy to keep those emotions bottled in and use them well on track.”

SUNDAY: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

There’s always a random element to qualifying in Mexico. The altitude means track conditions are far more changeable than they are at sea level, and cars can fall in and out of its sweet spot rapidly.

Ricciardo had been confident all weekend that he could secure a lofty finish, but he’d have to prove it.

Confident is how you’d describe his entire race.

His launch was equal to that of Lewis Hamilton behind him, and the pair were side by side through the first sector. Hamilton had the faster car, but Ricciardo’s defensive work was steadfast. He kept the Mercedes behind until lap 11, dropping him to fifth.

That’s where he should have stayed. Neither Oscar Piastri nor George Russell behind could make an impact on him in terms of pure pace, and Ricciardo was quick enough to defend against the powerful undercut from both at the first stops.

The trick to a good result at the Mexico City Grand Prix is to understand it’s always a race of heavy management.

The tyres are always threatening to spiral out of their temperature window as the car slides on the track in low-grip conditions.

Cooling for the engine and brakes is always right at the limit because the atmosphere is around 22 per cent thinner, meaning there’s simply less air to transfer heat away from the car.

Avoiding the temptation to overdrive is crucial. Maintaining that fine balance between pushing and constraining is everything.

It’s a rhythm Ricciardo was mastering just behind the leading four cars.

It was only the mid-race red flag that reopened what had been a closed case for fifth.

“When I saw the red flag I was like, ‘Ugh’, because the race was just going very nice and smooth, and we were in fifth and everything was kind of on plan,” he said. “At that point it looked like we could have finished fifth.

“Some people had different tyres for the restart. We were probably a little hindered to maybe some cars with the medium.”

George Russell was one of the medium-tyre runners, and he jumped Ricciardo off the line, dropping him to sixth.

Lando Norris was gifted a second pit stop that helped bring him dramatically into contention for big points, and he charged through to demote his former teammate to seventh.

But Ricciardo fell no further. Once the race settled from the restart, he re-established the rhythm that had served him well in the first part of the race, so much so that Russell came back towards him late in the grand prix, with the pair probably only a lap or two away from swapping positions again.

“I think we still did well to grab the top seven,” he said. “Sixth would have been even nicer, but to fight a Mercedes at the end of the race — being big picture — we have to be very happy.

“It’s definitely more fun fighting at the front. It just feels better. It feels right.

“I’m happy with the weekend, and we’ll try to keep this thing rolling.”

The result caught attention, but it was the completeness of the performance that most impressed for its reminiscence of the Ricciardo of old.

‘YOU COULDN’T FAIL TO BE IMPRESSED’

This will almost certainly be the high water mark of Ricciardo and AlphaTauri’s season. Conditions at other circuits won’t be so kind, and the car will surely revert its usual place on the cusp of points for the last three rounds.

But that can still be enough for Ricciardo to make his point now that he’s injected himself into F1’s central conversation.

“It was great to see Daniel perform so well, and it endorses our decision to bring him back,” Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner said, per Press Association. “I thought he was outstanding this weekend, and if it was not for the red flag, he would have finished further up the order.

“It was a remarkable performance, and he is back to his old self. He is relaxed and confident.”

Praise as effusive as that certainly raises the spectre of Ricciardo earning his place back at Red Bull Racing, the stated aim of his Formula 1 comeback following his McLaren axing.

Earlier in the year, when the Australian’s comeback plan was still coming to fruition, Horner insisted Ricciardo would be considered for the senior team only in 2025, once Pérez’s two-year deal had expired at the end of next season.

But after a poor run of form that’s delivered just three podiums since Ricciardo made his comeback in Hungary, the team principal’s language around Pérez is decidedly less definitive and certainly far less enthusiastic than his praise for Ricciardo.

“Sergio has an agreement with us for next year and our intention is for him to be in the car in 2024,” Horner said, per PA. “We will give him all the support he needs to ensure he finishes second in the championship.”

It’s hardly the kind of recommendation to write home about.

To be fair to Pérez, his pace in Mexico had been strong in practice and qualifying, giving credence to his claim that he’s turning a corner. He’s also still more likely than not to secure second in the drivers championship despite the margin shrinking to just 20 points.

But his clumsy home-race antics couldn’t have come at a worse time. On a day Ricciardo delivered a cool and calm performance strongly reminiscent of his glory days at Red Bull Racing, Pérez allowed his heart to rule his head in making what looked like a desperate first-turn move.

One driver gives the perception that he’s building to something the bigger. The other appears trapped in a negative spiral.

One driver gets along well with the undisputed number one driver. The other can’t escape rumours of a simmering undercurrent of tension.

One driver has a successful slice of Red Bull Racing history already to his name. The other is scrambling to keep his place.

The arguments form themselves. Short of the deeply unlikely scenario that Ricciardo’s weekend in Mexico was an inexplicable one-off, it’s increasingly hard to believe the old Ricciardo won’t find himself back in his old seat sooner rather than later.