“It is great to see Daniel performing so well” - Christian Horner heaps praise on ‘outstanding’ Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico

Red Bull team principal Christain Horner mentioned that Daniel Ricciardo had an 'outstanding' weekend at the 2023 F1 Mexican GP and he was happy to see the latter performing well.

The AlphaTauri driver looked like his old self during the weekend as he qualified in P4 in a Red Bull sandwich and was just a tenth away from getting into the front row. The Aussie displayed some of his feel for the car with overtakes on the track during the main race on Sunday and was half a second away from finishing P6.

Speaking to the media, the Red Bull team boss said:

"It is great to see Daniel performing so well and fully endorses the reason why we brought him back into the AlphaTauri. I thought he was outstanding this weekend, fighting Mercedes in an AlphaTauri - and if it were not for the red flag, he'd have finished higher up, so it was a great performance and certainly looked like the Daniel of old this weekend."

He continued:

"Look at the time delta to Max, it was less than a tenth so a remarkable performance by him. He's back to his old self, you can see he is relaxed, he's confident and he came into the weekend fully motivated after a tricky Austin coming back from injury."

Daniel Ricciardo analyzes his P7 finish in Mexico

Ricciardo claimed that he missed out on finishing a bit higher at the Mexican Grand Prix due to the red-flag stoppage and could have finished P5.

Speaking with F1.com, the AlphaTauri driver said:

"To be honest, when I saw the red flag, I was like ‘urgggh’ because the race was just kind of going very nice and smooth and we were in fifth and everything was kind of on plan, and at that point, it looked like we could have finished fifth."

“But on the other hand, when there’s a big crash, you can’t think too much about yourself obviously. It was good to hear that Kevin was okay, and I heard it was a car failure as well, so out of his control and that’s racing, these things happen and it's the same for everyone.”

Daniel Ricciardo's result helped the team climb from the bottom of the standing into P8 level on points with Alfa Romeo in the constructors' battle. If he continues this performance, there is a possibility of the team challenging Williams F1 for P7.