After a successful five-year stint with Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo left the side at the end of the 2018 season to carve out a team leader role for himself with an outfit that would back him for the championship. He first went to Renault before moving to McLaren. However, he couldn’t realize his ambitions with any of them. Since the Honey Badger is already 34 now and is perhaps running out of time to become a world champion, he has seemingly toned down his desire to achieve his lifelong goal.
Ricciardo told Tom Clarkson on the Beyond the Grid podcast, “Do I still want to be world champion? Yes. Has it been a dream of mine since I was a kid? Yes. But maybe it’s just because I’ve seen Max, or whoever else, and they’re still waking up the same person. It’s not going to change me as a human, therefore it’s not going to change my life going forward.”
Just a few years back, Ricciardo was hell-bent on fighting for the championship. However, after seeing Verstappen garner all the support in the garage, he left Red Bull to find a team that would build their aspirations around him. As Ricciardo departed with the hope of achieving success elsewhere, he hit a roadblock.
With Renault, he was stuck with an underachieving midfield team. He only registered a few podiums before moving to McLaren. However, it would be at Woking that he would face the toughest two years of his career.
He was not only outclassed by an inexperienced Lando Norris, but Red Bull struck gold by producing an utterly dominant car. But there still might be some hope for Ricciardo to jump back into a championship-winning car, as Sergio Perez’s seat at Milton Keynes seems to be under threat.
Sergio Perez could gift Daniel Ricciardo his fairytale ending with Red Bull
Sergio Perez really struggled in 2023 as on several occasions he found himself knocked out of Q1 and Q2. On the other hand, Max Verstappen went on to win the championship by a whopping 290-point margin and registered 19 Grand Prix wins.
Hence, if the Mexican’s dip in form continues, Christian Horner has already revealed that 2024 could be the last year for the 33-year-old on the team. If Red Bull does decide to replace Perez, Daniel Ricciardo is being named as one of the prime candidates to replace him.
That being said, from the handful of races the Australian drove this season, only the Mexican Grand Prix is where he had a strong race. As a result, Ricciardo needs to pull his socks up in 2024 if he is keen to make an impression.
And that’s exactly what he’s prepared to do. Speedcafe.com quoted him as saying, “I will expect me to do things like I did in Mexico and turn some heads, and have people saying ‘Oh, he’s still got it,” because I believe I can.”
