Ricciardo asserts Tsunoda battle 'positive for the team'

Daniel Ricciardo was pleased to engage in an intra-team fight with Yuki Tsunoda this year, believing it was “positive for the team”.

After starting the year in a third driver role with Red Bull following his departure from McLaren, Ricciardo returned to a race seat midway through the campaign.

The Australian was handed a seat at AlphaTauri in place of Nyck de Vries - however his comeback only lasted two races before he was sidelined again with a hand injury.

Upon his return in the latter stages of the campaign, Ricciardo's performances aided AlphaTauri's rise to eighth in the Constructors' Championship.

In the seven races that he was paired together with Tsunoda, the Japanese driver won the qualifying and race head-to-head 4-3.

The duo will once again pair up at AlphaTauri (which is set to run under a different name) in 2024.

Having gone head-to-head for supremacy in the final stages of this year's campaign, Ricciardo suggested that both himself and Tsunoda got the best out of each other.

“Obviously, I wasn't on board for the first part of the season,” Ricciardo told media including RacingNews365.com.

“The way the team turned it around [was impressive] and obviously, the [car] updates. I would like to think Yuki and myself pushed each other a little bit. And that was positive for the team.

“So I think the team can kind of be excited for moving into next year. Of course, seventh would be nice, but few races ago, we were talking about finishing tenth.

“So the seventh was kind of a bonus. It gives us a little bit more to fight for next year.”