When Daniel Ricciardo returned to Red Bull, after his very first session on the simulator, team boss, Christian Horner claimed that the honey badger had picked up a few ‘bad driving habits’ from his time at McLaren. However, the Australian has now absolved his ex-employers from taking the blame as he reasoned his nervousness and loss of confidence as the culprits for his apparent ‘bad habits’.
While on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Ricciardo revealed that it was his loss of confidence that led him to accrue a few bad habits as far as his driving style was concerned. This obviously hints at the torrid two years he spent with the iconic British team.
Ricciardo told Tom Clarkson, “Yeah, and I think bad habits can just come in the form of a lack of confidence. It was the end of last year. Once the season was done, I jumped on the sim, I guess it was sometime in December before I went home for Christmas.”
His stint with McLaren is something he would want to desperately forget. 2022 was arguably the worst season he’s faced. While his teammate, Lando Norris scored a handsome 122 points, Ricciardo finished outside the top 10 in the standings, for the first time in a decade, with a paltry 37 points in comparison.
The team were so convinced they wanted to sack the Aussie, that they were willing to shell out the extra $18 million on terms of salary for terminating the contract with one year left on it. But in 2024, Ricciardo may make the Papaya team question their decision.
A Daniel Ricciardo renaissance might be on the cards for 2024
After being sacked by McLaren at the end of 2022, Ricciardo found himself without a seat for 2023. However, with F1 rookie, Nyck de Vries struggling at AlphaTauri, the Bulls decided to replace him with the honey badger, in a shock move, from the Hungarian GP onwards.
After impressing the team during a Pirelli-mandated tire test at Silverstone, Ricciardo paved the way back into the Red Bull family. However, at the Dutch GP, his FP2 crash left him with a fractured wrist and out for almost 2 months. On his return, many thought he was finished. But a stellar Mexican GP, where he qualified a brilliant 4th, and his race pace to finish P7 in the AT04, established his seat for 2024 as well.
In 2024, the objective for Ricciardo is clear. He is auditioning for that second Red Bull seat that looks ever so likely to be vacated by Sergio Perez after next season. For that, Ricciardo must at the least beat his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda. Nonetheless, his path back to Red Bull isn’t as straightforward as it seems.
Tsunoda himself is auditioning for that coveted 2nd Bulls’ seat. What’s more, Liam Lawson who filled in for Ricciardo while he was injured is also now being brought into the mix for Perez’s seat. Hence, a three-way battle has ensued for a Red Bull drive in 2025 and beyond.
