“Go in There With a Fresh Mind”: Red Bull Stint Has Helped Daniel Ricciardo Move On From McLaren Nightmare

Daniel Ricciardo spent the best time of his F1 career during his stint as a Red Bull driver. Ricciardo won seven races with them, but in search of a new challenge, left Red Bull in 2019 to join Renault. The French team couldn’t offer Ricciardo what he was looking for, and he switched to McLaren in 2021, in what turned out to be a disaster.

Ricciardo did win the 2021 Italian GP with McLaren, but overall, his spell was a nightmare. His teammate Lando Norris comprehensively outperformed him on all fronts and it took a huge hit on his confidence. He signed a three-year deal with them that was supposed to keep him in Woking until 2023, but the team decided to cut it short and part ways with him ahead of the start of this season.

Ricciardo left without an F1 seat and returned to Red Bull as a third driver behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. While he won’t be taking part in races in 2023, Ricciardo is expected to get time out on the track during tests and is also fulfilling his duties on the simulator.

Red Bull helped Daniel Ricciardo forget about McLaren past

So far, Ricciardo has mainly helped Red Bull by spending time on the simulator. He recalls how after the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP, he spent three months away from any F1-related work, but returning to Milton-Keynes in February and working on the simulator, was the most fun he ever had doing this particular activity.

Ricciardo left Red Bull in 2019, which was a long time ago. However, his return still excited everyone on the team and he ‘picked up right where he left off’ because of his familiarity with the surroundings and the people. Working with Red Bull once again over the last few months has helped Ricciardo regain the confidence he lost during his McLaren stint.

“Would honestly say in a day my confidence went from being probably pretty low to back at the levels I remember being at,” the 33-year-old said. “I think just having that time off also just gave me a chance to, in a way, forget a little bit of the last two years. Just go in there with a fresh mind.”

Red Bull return has been better than Ricciardo thought it’d be

Ricciardo reveals that he was always excited about returning to Red Bull and the people in the team have welcomed him with open arms. No one thinks about his departure in 2019, and they worked in perfect sync from the moment he returned.

“There’s kind of no carry over of 2018 or whatever choice I made back then,” he said. “I don’t even want to say we’re starting from fresh. It just feels like we’re picking it up where we left off. I’m happy.”

Ricciardo is happy about his return to Red Bull, even though he is not the main figure anymore. He previously stated that being away from the spotlight is helping him mentally, and he is using this break to spent more time with friends and family.