Despite winning his last Grand Prix while driving for McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo had little to take away from his days at the Woking-based team. Following the split with the Woking team, the Australian initially planned of sidelining himself from the sport for at least a year. While various people advised him against the decision, the Honey Badger admits to feeling happy about silencing their noise despite returning to the tracks earlier than planned.
With AlphaTauri quickly losing faith in Nyck de Vries, they brought in Red Bull‘s reserve driver, Ricciardo, to take up the vacant seat. Having spent months on the sidelines, the comeback was already challenging enough for the 34-year-old.
It became even tougher, for the 8-time race winner when he suffered a broken hand following a crash in the practice session in Zandvoort, leading to him missing even more races.
Several F1 pundits and former drivers also doubted an aging Ricciardo’s decision to stay on the sidelines instead of being in the thick of things. They thought it was career suicide by the Australian, given his age and the sheer talent possessed by some of the young talents, ready to fight in the big leagues.
However, Ricciardo was happy to let the opinions of everyone else slide and feels proud of staying confident in himself, as he stated in an exclusive by Motorsport Week.
“There was part of me that was proud of myself for maybe going against some people’s advice.”, stated Ricciardo.
The time Ricciardo spent watching from the sidelines gave him space to introspect and understand what he wanted. “I knew I still wanted to do it, but I was still, kind of, just searching.” He explained he wanted to wake up every day with the feeling of reaching the track as quickly as possible instead of racing just for the sake of it.
Daniel Ricciardo knows what he needs to do to get his Red Bull seat back
With Sergio Perez’s contract with Red Bull running out at the end of the 2024 season, there is uncertainty about who will partner up with Max Verstappen in 2025. Per Christian Horner, “Max [Verstappen] and Checo have been a tremendously successful pairing.” However, he added that it did not guarantee anything for the 2025 season and that “Everything is open.”
As such, the possibility of Ricciardo taking up Perez’s seat is a serious contender, especially given his performances with AlphaTauri. To achieve a dream comeback to Red Bull, Ricciardo needs to consistently outperform Yuki Tsunoda throughout 2024.
However, in doing so, Ricciardo also has to hope Horner doesn’t look somewhere else for a replacement. The Red Bull boss is looking at both internal and external options in case a driver lineup change is to take place in 2025. “For us [Red Bull] to have options both internally and also externally is no bad place to be.”
