When Daniel Ricciardo Kept Himself in the League of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel: “Between Us We Got 8 World Titles”

There was a time back in the turbo-hybrid era of F1 when Daniel Ricciardo considered himself in the same league as the likes of seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, and four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel. Back in 2017, the Australian once joked that the three of them together had won eight world titles.

During a drivers’ press conference at the 2017 Abu Dhabi GP, Ricciardo sat alongside arguably two of the greatest racers in the history of this sport, Vettel and Hamilton. That’s when he famously quipped, “I mean between us three, we’ve got eight world titles, so, it’s pretty good!”

Hamilton had just wrapped up the fourth of his seven titles that season and matched Vettel in the process. The German made his debut in 2007 and won his first race at the Italian GP with Toro Rosso in 2008. Since then, he has gone on to clinch four world titles with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013.

Hamilton, on the other hand, won his maiden title with McLaren in 2007 and went on to establish unprecedented dominance with Mercedes. He won six more times with Mercedes from 2014 to 2020, a feat that no driver has achieved with one single team.

In the process, Hamilton also took his total tally of championships to seven and matched Michael Schumacher. On the other hand, even though Daniel Ricciardo has always had enormous talent, he has yet failed to fight for the championship.

Many considered that the eight-time Grand Prix winner would sometime win a title during his first stint at Red Bull. However, with Ricciardo having returned to the family that gave him his first major opportunity in F1, he could still drive for the senior Red Bull team in the future if he impresses with AlphaTauri in 2024.

Daniel Ricciardo is ready to live the Red Bull dream once again

2014 was Daniel Ricciardo’s debut season for Red Bull when he replaced the retiring Mark Webber. Ricciardo proved to be a tougher competition for the reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel, compared to his Australian predecessor. In his debut season for the team, Ricciardo outscored Vettel in a car that was powered by the flawed Renault engine.

Five years down the line, and just two years before the team’s resurgence, he quit the team to come out of Max Verstappen’s shadow. He first moved to Renault.

However, since he failed to achieve the kind of success he would have liked with the French outfit, he decided to move to McLaren at the start of the 2021 season. His time at McLaren was even worse though as his two seasons of underperformance resulted in the Woking-based outfit part ways with him at the end of the 2022 campaign.

However, after spending just six months on the sidelines, Ricciardo made an epic comeback with AlphaTauri in the middle of the 2023 campaign. His Pirelli test at Silverstone convinced the Italian outfit to replace the underperforming Nyck de Vries with him.

Moreover, since Sergio Perez’s seat is in danger because of the Mexican’s underwhelming performances in 2023, Daniel Ricciardo could still live his dream of returning to the main Red Bull team and winning the championship with them. While he still continues to dream of winning a world title, it is important to note that he did state in a recent interview that such aspirations have reduced for him.