Daniel Ricciardo hopes a return to Red Bull Racing as a third driver will prove he can still be one of Formula 1’s top performers after two years of disappointment.
Ricciardo signed up to the non-racing role with his former team this week, confirming he’ll spend at least one season on the sidelines after more than a decade in the sport.
Ricciardo had forged a reputation as an intimidating late braker during his Red Bull-backed career and as relentless midfield hustler while at Renault, but his stocks plummeted after his switch to McLaren in 2021.
Stream over 50 sports live and on demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
He was pummelled by new teammate Lando Norris, 10 years his junior, and struggled to adapt his driving style to the car.
His second year was worse than his first, and he was axed from the team with a season still to run on his contract.
Though he had options to stay on the grid in the midfield, the West Australian said he preferred to take a year out to reset instead, revealing his time at McLaren had been so psychologically bruising that he was afraid he’d lost his talent.
“As the second half of the season went on, I just needed to step away for a bit, rebuild myself, reset a bit, and also just find the intense love for it,” he told Speedcafe.
“Because, at this level, if you don’t have that, then I’m not doing justice for myself or anyone around me.
“I’m not saying I’ve lost it, but I’m in fear of losing it.”
Ricciardo said he found the process of having to repeatedly pick himself up and dust himself off from difficult races was also wearing him down to the point where he needed a clean break from the sport.
Ricciardo farewells as Verstappen wins | 03:49
“It just became more and more clear that I couldn’t be doing 24 races next year — it just wasn’t going to, I think, be the right thing for me,” he added.
“I think it would have just probably worn me out more than anything and it’s at a point where I just felt a little exhausted, where I just needed to slow my year down.
“And at this level of sport that is dangerous — you can’t be operating at 99 per cent.
“So I really felt I was in fear of not being at my best if I did another year.”
Ricciardo’s struggles with the McLaren car are simple to understand on paper but difficult to convert in mechanical or physical fixes.
Ricciardo’s trademark high-apex-speed style needs a car that can lean on the front axle with sharp front-end grip, enabling him to maintain a high minimum speed through the apex and use a looser rear end to change direction.
But both of McLaren’s last two cars have had comparatively weaker front ends that needed a peculiar driving style to master, something Ricciardo was never able to adapt to consistently for reasons he has never been able to fully understand.
Returning to a team with a car philosophy he understands well is an opportunity for him to prove to himself that the ‘old’ Ricciardo is still in there.
MORE MOTORSPORT
CALNDAR SHAKE-UP: Chinese GP set for the axe as Covid chaos continues
RICCIARDO GOES HOME: Why Danny Ric is heading back to Red Bull Racing
THE FOUR FACES OF SEB VETTEL: The Red Bull record-setter, the antagonist, the flawed Ferrarista and the F1 leader
“McLaren, in a way, I have to accept it was what it was,” he said. “Maybe I’ll never know [why it didn’t work],” Ricciardo reasoned.
“That’s why I’m curious to get back into Red Bull, a place where obviously I competed well with Max, and even just get on the sim and get back to a car that I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this is a car that allows me to show my strengths’.
“I’m kind of just curious to see how I go back in something which I obviously had a lot of success in.”
After four years and just three podiums, including that famous Monza victory, to show for it, Ricciardo also said he was looking forward to returning to the team that delivered him most of his success.
“There’s certainly a nostalgia to it but, honestly, it’s all hit over the last few years,” he said.
“But it’s even more recently when [Red Bull founder Dietrich] Mateschitz passed away … it really hit home. If it wasn’t for them, I literally wouldn’t be on the grid.
“So there’s that as well, where it’s like coming back to where it all started, and it is like going home.
“They’re your biggest people that supported your whole career, and you just want to be back in that environment, I guess, and feel that warmth and love.
“I don’t want that to be a headline saying that I haven’t felt that elsewhere, but there’s something about it which I think will feel really nice.”
