Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
At the end of the 2023 season, after returning to F1, Daniel Ricciardo defined himself as a reborn and re-energized driver, after some negative seasons and having rediscovered the pleasure of driving and having fun behind the wheel of a Formula One.
After 4 years away from the Red Bull world, with two less than satisfactory adventures, Daniel Ricciardo decided at the end of last season to return to the family that had seen him rise from a rookie at Toro Rosso to one of F1’s best and most respected drivers at Red Bull Racing. A return to the role of third driver, after ending his adventure with McLaren earlier than expected following a rough couple of years.
A return that surprisingly offered him the opportunity to race as an official driver after just six months. The AlphaTauri team decided to ditch Nyck de Vries (after a string of underwhelming performances) and to recall Daniel Ricciardo before the Hungarian GP. An unexpected and positive return which, unfortunately, was complicated and interrupted by the hand injury suffered by the Australian following an accident in free practice 2 for the Dutch GP in Zandvoort. He missed five races.
On his second race back from injury at the Mexico City Grand Prix, the 8-time winner qualified fourth and finished the race with a great seventh place.
After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ricciardo analysed his comeback, including the injury, and labelled the year he experienced as positive in general. It’s quite the contrast to a year ago when it seemed he might be done with F1.
“Obviously, I wish this never happened, just because it was uncomfortable and painful and whatever. But now that it’s obviously done, I still look back on this year as a positive. Because sitting here a year ago, I was like, ‘could this be my last race?’
“I don’t exaggerate when I say that. I really didn’t know. I honestly thought it was 50-50. So, to have the year I’ve had and forget the hand, I just kind of feel a little bit maybe reborn again, is kind of the right word. I feel just re-energised.”
He explained how the injury and the potential thoughts of some people saying it shows he shouldn’t have returned motivated him even more to return and silence them.
“And I’ve definitely got a second wind. If I then speak of the hand, for this not to feel like a setback probably speaks volumes. I could see how maybe some people would see that lame accident with high consequences, ‘maybe Daniel should just give it up — that’s probably just a sign that he should just call it a day’.
“But I never thought that. I never felt like that. So yeah, that was maybe even more power to the decision of kind of trying to kick some butt.”
After saying he would not join a team that was struggling for car pace following the announcement of his departure from McLaren, time away from the sport has allowed the Aussie to find a true spark for F1 once again — and he can be happy if he’s able to maximise the car underneath him. The AT03 was generally the slowest package when he entered the cockpit in Hungary.
“My enjoyment in the sport should not be results-based in terms of yes, I’ll know what’s a good lap or what’s a good race, and that will help me sleep at night. It doesn’t just need to be winning every time.
“And I think I came to the kind of place where I was totally happy and comfortable at that time driving for the 10th-place team on the grid, where last year when I said I don’t want to jump back into a car if it’s fighting at the back, it didn’t make sense for me. But slowly it started to make more and more sense.”
Lastly, Ricciardo expanded about the fun he immediately had when he did the tyre test for Red Bull at Silverstone that ultimately saw him take De Vries’ seat at AlphaTauri as Marko and Horner were left highly impressed by his runs.
The hunger and desire to be back on the grid had clearly returned after several months away from the cockpit.
“If I didn’t race at all this year, if I had a whole 12 months off, I think that would have been no problem.”
“Because the power of time off, for me, what just really, really beneficial and it gave me so much.
“And fortunately, I didn’t find enough in those six months.
“If would have asked me in January, okay, you’re going to jump in an AlphaTauri in Budapest, how do you feel? I would’ve said ‘I’m probably not ready, I need more time.’ I wouldn’t have made that much sense to me.
“But then by that point [Silverstone tyre test] it just made a lot more sense. And then driving the car, I was ‘alright, this feels fun again’.
“Even when I qualified, I don’t know, 14th or something, I was still just having fun.”
