After all, his AlphaTauri team currently lies at the bottom of the world championship table, and it had scored just five points all season until Yuki Tsunoda doubled that total with a strong race in Austin, helped by the disqualifications ahead.
But really the story in Mexico on Saturday was about Ricciardo himself, and his quest for redemption after being bundled out of McLaren at the end of his nightmare 2022 season.
Many observers thought that we might never see the Australian race an F1 car again, and that he’d drift into a media and ambassadorial career, taking advantage of the profile that Drive to Survive has given him.
To their credit, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko had faith that the driver who served them so well for several years could, in the right environment, still get the job done.
But there were no guarantees. The failure of Nyck de Vries to fully capitalise on his chance with AlphaTauri opened the door for Ricciardo to return in Red Bull’s second team.
With Sergio Perez struggling at the senior outfit the obvious conclusion was that Horner and Marko were keeping their options open. Getting Ricciardo back up to racing speed would at least ensure that he was a viable candidate should they opt to replace the Mexican in 2025.
With little preparation Ricciardo had a couple of low-key outings in Hungary and Belgium before the practice crash at Zandvoort that left him with a hand injury. It cost him five races, and gave Liam Lawson a golden opportunity to throw his hat into the ring.
Source: Autosport