Christian Horner: Ricciardo’s first test in the simulator was “complete disaster”

(Motorsport-Whole.com) – That Daniel Ricciardo will drive for AlphaTauri from Hungary, he additionally supposedly owes to a powerful tire check at Silverstone. But it surely did not seem like that a couple of months in the past when Purple Bull staff boss Christian Horner in contrast it to Ricciardo’s first check within the simulator, which was “a whole catastrophe”.

After two disappointing years at McLaren, the Australian was hardly recognizable for Purple Bull: “He seemed fairly damaged,” Horner recollects assembly in a lodge room in Mexico final 12 months, the place he supplied him a twelve-month return Purple Bull to come back.

There he would assist the staff with the simulator and check work and rediscover his ardour for the game. “As a result of it was clear he wasn’t having enjoyable and to be trustworthy I did not acknowledge the Daniel that we have grown so accustomed to over the previous few years and grew up with us,” so Horner im Podcast ‘F1 Nation’.

Ricciardo then accomplished the primary simulator check a couple of days after Abu Dhabi, but it surely was something however clean: “It was a whole catastrophe,” Horner recollects. “And he is picked up each unhealthy behavior possible.”

However by working together with his former engineer, he obtained higher with each session. “You can see his confidence rising and finally he was completely on par with the common drivers.”

Like ten years in the past

In Silverstone, a long-planned Pirelli tire check adopted, during which Ricciardo is claimed to have been “extraordinarily spectacular” after which obtained the cockpit from Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.

Right here Horner felt a bit of reminded of one other check from ten years in the past: “Again then we checked out who can be the proper one to switch Mark Webber,” he says. At the moment, Kimi Raikkonen, who was about to leap at Lotus, was one of many favorites.

However Purple Bull additionally gave Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo the possibility, who did properly in comparison with Sebastian Vettel and was in the end promoted.

Aid famous after good tempo

Ricciardo additionally did properly within the 2023 check at Silverstone and significantly impressed Horner with the truth that, regardless of his break of a number of months, he was inside a second of the common drivers after simply three or 4 laps.

Horner says he was simply pleased to see Ricciardo trip at this stage. “After I advised him that it will have put him within the entrance row, you would virtually see the aid in his eyes,” he says. “It was virtually like a load lifted from his shoulders that he is nonetheless obtained it.”