“I probably would have thrown a few tantrums by now and lost it mentally so to speak”– Daniel Ricciardo claims he has become wise with age; draws a comparison with younger self amidst struggling McLaren phase

“I probably would have thrown a few tantrums by now and lost it mentally so to speak”– Daniel Ricciardo if his younger self faced McLaren issues.

Daniel Ricciardo is dealing with his condition at McLaren with absolute calm and maturity, but the Australian race driver thinks his younger self would have done the opposite.

The 32-year-old driver, who believes he has become wise, is applying all his experience to overcome all the challenges he is currently facing in the Woking-based team.

“When I was younger, expecting the world from everything and it wasn’t happening, then I probably would have thrown a few tantrums by now and lost it mentally so to speak,” Ricciardo says in a limited company, including The Race.

“That’s where being here for a while now kind of bits of help to take a breath, step back, go through it and understand that there’s a reason why things aren’t great right now.

“I need to find some answers as opposed to just throwing my hands up and walking away from it all.”

Glad we had a break

For McLaren, the Hungarian Grand Prix was a disaster as Lando Norris had to concede his first DNF of the year, and Ricciardo finished just outside the points zone, giving McLaren a blank.

However, approaching the break after the Hungarian Grand Prix, he is relaxed that he had a lengthy break and utilized it by completely switching off, and have recommended the same to his team members.

“There’s definitely moments, like approaching the triple-header when we had France and Austria, I was very much excited to have a few races on the bounce and use that momentum,” he said after the race in Hungary.

“Now it’s the right time to step away. Sometimes you need to step away, and I’m glad we get a break. I’ll switch off completely. I also want to encourage the team to. We’ve still got work to do, but I think everyone needs to just detox and decompress for those couple of weeks.”