Daniel Ricciardo was already out of Formula 1 when a new door opened for him as Red Bull’s third driver after his early exit from McLaren. But the Australian still had the expectation that he would return to the regular cockpit later this season not calculated.
But the expulsion of Nyck de Vries from AlphaTauri made it possible. Ricciardo’s time out lasted shorter than expected, and yet he says: “I think it showed me how much I ultimately love the thing, how much it means to me.”
“Now I feel like I’ve been given a second chance, a new lease of life that says, ‘Okay, I want to make sure this is my only priority, I’m going to put all my energy into this,'” explains the 34th -year olds.
“Because I don’t want to go away one day and say, ‘I could have done more’ or ‘My career got away from me a little bit’. I would hate to feel that,” he admits. The break gave him “a new perspective” in this regard. “I would say I would recommend it to everyone!”
“Obviously everyone is on their own path, but I can’t believe how much I enjoyed the second half of the season. It’s pretty crazy what six months can do,” enthuses Ricciardo about his Formula 1 comeback.
Before this time, the Australian was in a completely different place and questioned a lot of things. “This sport should be the coolest thing we do, right? But when you’ve done it your whole life and you go through certain things… When you win, it’s kind of easy.”
“But if you don’t win, there are of course other challenging moments in which you can get a little frustrated. And then of course your self-confidence suffers from the competitive situation,” said Ricciardo.
“So you ask yourself more questions,” adds the Australian. “And I think that also calls into question the love of the thing, you might not be as hungry anymore, and you’ll be ready for the other side of the sport, the preparation and all that.”