Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that he is not done yet despite being relegated to a test driver role this season. He has made it clear that he is yet eager to win his maiden championship in the sport.
While speaking to the Athletic, the Australian said, “I’ve never won a world championship. But for a big part of my career, I was at least fighting for wins or podiums. I always considered myself as good, if not better, than everyone else”.
Daniel Ricciardo finds himself out of place as a Red Bull test driver
It is no secret that drivers of Daniel Ricciardo‘s calibre will find themselves out of place after everything they have achieved in the sport. The 33-year-old is not only an eight-time Grand Prix winner but also has several podiums to his name.
The Australian currently finds himself in a position similar to how his F1 journey began. Ricciardo made his first appearance in F1 back in 2009 as a Red Bull test driver after delivering impressive performances during his junior Formula categories.
From that point on, he worked his way up to driving for Torro Rosso and then finally the senior Red Bull team in 2014. He kickstarted his first season at Red Bull with a bang as he outscored his four-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel.
After delivering several impressive performances for the Milton Keynes outfit, he joined Renault in 2019 for two seasons. He continued to impress at the French outfit as he finished ninth in the world championship in 2019 followed by a fantastic fifth in 2020.
Ricciardo lost his way at McLaren
Things all seemed to fall apart for Daniel Ricciardo during his last two seasons at McLaren. The 33-year-old had a poor season in 2021 as he finished eighth in the Drivers’ Championship with 115 points, 35 points behind his inexperienced teammate Lando Norris.
And if 2021 was not average for Ricciardo, 2022 was far worse. The Australian scored just 37 points and finished eleventh in the championship, a whopping 85 points behind Norris.
Since Ricciardo has struggled in the past couple of seasons, he will now hope to use 2023 as a year to rejuvenate. Once he has done so, he will hope that there is an opening that comes up for the 2024 season in one of the top teams.
