Martin Brundle admits 34-year-old F1 driver was ‘thrown in the deep end’ this season

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Martin Brundle has admitted that he expected more from Daniel Ricciardo when he returned to the grid in 2023 with AlphaTauri.

Brundle was taking part in a Q+A on the Sky Sports F1 website and discussing the Australian’s cameo this year.

The only person who would have expected to see Daniel Ricciardo back on the grid after 10 races this season is probably Ricciardo himself.

The 34-year-old was brought in to replace Nyck de Vries after he failed to convert his exceptional cameo with Williams in 2022 into consistent performances at AlphaTauri.

Ricciardo was signed as Red Bull’s reserve driver after being released by McLaren and was Christian Horner and Franz Tost’s secret weapon.

There were high expectations when Ricciardo joined AlphaTauri given he’s got eight F1 race wins to his name.

However, Brundle has admitted that he was slightly underwhelmed with Ricciardo who had a difficult 2023 even when he was back in the car.

He struggled to get a run of races under his belt after breaking his hand in the Netherlands.

It likely didn’t help that Liam Lawson was brought in as his replacement for five races and did exceptionally well.

Brundle says ‘jury is out’ on Ricciardo’s return in 2023

Speaking about the Australian, Brundle said: “I don’t think Daniel has perhaps outperformed Tsunoda as I would have expected him to.

“I know he was thrown in at the deep end and he was really unlucky with that incident in Zandvoort. So the jury is out on that.”

Ricciardo admitted in a recent interview that last winter was the first time he had properly relaxed in years and accepted that he needed some time off.

That would have helped him reset mentally and there’s no doubt that he’s exceptionally quick on his day.

As Brundle says, Ricciardo’s unfortunate injury did disrupt his return in 2023, but the impressive Yuki Tsunoda kept him in check during the final races of the season.

There’s already plenty of speculation about Sergio Perez’s future with his contract expiring next year.

While Ricciardo is being touted as a potential replacement, Tsunoda will know that if he can outperform the Australian, then his name might start to come up in discussions as well.

Ultimately, the carrot of a seat in the works Red Bull team is only going to motivate the pair for 2024.