Daniel Ricciardo chose to look for the positives after AlphaTauri failed to leapfrog Williams for seventh position in the constructors’ standings.
Throwing everything at the $13 million feat ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Monday, both AT04 cars trialled a version of the team’s 2024 floor.
Trailing by seven points in the lead-in, AlphaTauri fell short by three points after Yuki Tsunoda managed eighth around the Yas Marina Circuit while Ricciardo finished outside the points in 11th place.
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However, ever the optimist and the paddock’s resident ray of sunshine, Ricciardo was quick to point out that before last month’s Mexican Grand Prix, the team was sitting at the bottom of the standings.
Ricciardo was catapulted back into the cockpit of an F1 car in July after Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri axed rookie driver Nyck de Vries after just 10 races.
His season-best seventh for AlphaTauri at the Mexican Grand Prix gave the team some momentum for the final four races of the year.
“Obviously, I wasn’t on board for the first part of the season,” Ricciardo said post-race in Abu Dhabi.
“But the way the team turned it around, with the updates, and then I would like to think Yuki [Tsunoda] and myself pushed each other a little bit, and that’s positive for the team.
“There’s a lot the team can be excited about moving into next year.
“Of course, seventh would have been nice, but a few races ago we were talking about not finishing 10th, so seventh would have been a bonus.
“But it gives us a little bit more to fight for next year.”
After qualifying in 15th position for the closing race, Ricciardo finished 11th after he was forced to make an early pitstop on lap eight to remove a tear-off visor that had become caught inside one of his front brake ducts.
The stop set him back to 19th and forced his hand on a two-stop strategy.
“I need to see how much [the tear-off] affected us because for a two-stop [strategy] we would have probably pitted a little later,” Ricciardo said.
“I don’t know if it put us in a little bit of traffic or not, but it was not bad. We still recovered well and had a decent race.
“Obviously, there are always ifs, whats, and maybes. One more lap and we would have had [Lance] Stroll, or certainly we would have had his DRS and had a chance at him, so one lap away from a potential point, which is not too bad from where we started.”
Ricciardo has re-signed with AlphaTauri for 2024, possibly creating a stepping stone to replacing Sergio Perez in Red Bull’s 2025 driver line-up.