Daniel Ricciardo was a force to reckon with during his time at Red Bull and back in 2018, he had even managed to claim pole position at Mexico. Now, after 5 years, as the Australian returns to Mexico once again, as per a recent report by F1Maximaal, F1 driver turned presenter Karun Chandhok has revealed the one decision that Ricciardo must regret greatly.
During his time at Red Bull, Ricciardo managed to win seven Grands Prix and put up a challenge against Max Verstappen, something that no other teammate has been able to do since his departure. However, at the end of the 2018 season, Ricciardo shocked the F1 world by announcing his plans of moving over to Renault.
Chandhok reminisced about Ricciardo’s Pole position in the 2018 Mexico City GP and said, “I think the bottom line is that Daniel should not have left Red Bull, which has proven its ability to win races, to drive for Renault, and I think that is a decision he regrets.”
Ever since Ricciardo’s move to Renault, things have only gone south for the Honey Badger. Renault failed to provide him with the competitive car that they had promised they would. And Ricciardo finally seeked a move away from the French Brand to join McLaren after the end of the 2020 season.
The downward spiral for Daniel Ricciardo
However, the move to McLaren turned out to be an even bigger disaster for Ricciardo. The former Red Bull man failed to perform consistently for the Papaya outfit and throughout his two years stint with them, was comprehensively beaten by his teammate Lando Norris.
Even though Ricciardo did manage to sneak in a race win, that was the only bright point in his time with McLaren. Finally, the Woking outfit decided to drop Ricciardo at the end of the 2022 season and the 34 year old was left without a seat for 2023.
Ricciardo managed to make a grand comeback in the middle of the 2023 season, after he was called up by AlphaTauri to replace the outgoing Nyck De Vries. However, even his comeback hasn’t gone to plan as he got sidelined just after two races due to a wrist injury sustained during a practice session.
After missing out 5 races, Ricciardo is back once more and he has already been confirmed by AlphaTauri for the 2024 season. He has been extremely vocal about his main goal, which is to regain the Red Bull seat. However, things might have been much different if he hadn’t decided to leave in the first place.
