Ricciardo 'can't underestimate' work put in by engineers in tough year

Daniel Ricciardo has credited his engineer Pierre Hamelin forhelping him during his comeback with AlphaTauri in Formula 1. TheAustralian replaced Nyck de Vries at the Hungarian Grand Prix andwas in the car for two races, before a hand injury set him back forfive races between the Dutch and Qatar Grands Prix. This meantHamelin was working with a third driver for the season, afterAlphaTauri elected to parachute in rookie Liam Lawson to contestthe rounds while Ricciardo recovered. Ricciardo believes the workput in by his engineer made his comeback a lot easier when speakingto media, including RacingNews365 . "As much as I believe inmyself, I can't underestimate my engineer Pierre. He worked withthree drivers this year and he's trying to set up the car for eachdriver," said Ricciardo. "What we like what we don't, it's not easyfor him as well. So I really look forward to a proper off-seasonand pre-season and I think 2024 is going to be exciting for us."Ricciardo summarises the year Ricciardo felt that gaining moreexperience in the car was key to extracting points finishes, withhis best result being sixth at the Mexican Grand Prix. "The summaryof the year is race pace I was pretty happy with most days, thatwas something that was really positive," said Ricciardo. "The morelaps I get in the car, the more I understand it and get into arhythm. That kind of explains a little bit of my positive feelingon race pace." AlphaTauri introduced more updates towards the endof the year which contributed to their turn-around in form, havingstarted off with the slowest car on the grid. Ricciardo alsopointed to the dynamic between himself and teammate Yuki Tsunoda asa reason why they were able to finish on a high. "I obviouslywasn't onboard for the first part of the season, but the way theteam turned it around, [with] the updates, then I would like tothink Yuki and myself pushed each other a little bit. That waspositive for the team."