Daniel Ricciardo suspected the brutal nature of Red Bull’s cutthroat driver program could offer him a rapid route back onto the grid when he signed up to be Red Bull Racing’s third driver this season.
Ricciardo decided to take a sabbatical in 2023, having assessed himself to be burnt out and falling out of love with the sport after two difficult McLaren campaigns that culminated in him being axed from the team.
There was considerable speculation about his destination in the final months of last year, particularly once it became clear that he was talking to Mercedes about a possible reserve role that eventually went to Mick Schumacher.
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The Australian said the familiarity offered by Red Bull Racing won him over against a switch to the German marque that would be represented his third team in five seasons.
But speaking with the F1 website, Ricciardo admitted that he knew the chance of getting back on the grid was higher inside the Red Bull program, which is renowned for its sudden driver changes.
His suspicion proved well founded last week, when Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko sacked Nyck de Vries after only 10 races to make room for Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.
“I‘ve been part of — obviously with a little interval or little intermission over the last few years — the Red Ball family for so long, and I know that these things can happen,” Ricciardo said. “So even though I was, sure, taking some time off this year, in the back of my mind I knew maybe I would get a call.
“And of course I was on standby for Max or Checo as well if they were unwell or unfit, so I was always staying ready enough.
“It’s an unpredictable sport, so I was just staying ready at all times.”
Michael Lamonato, host of Fox Sports podcast Pit Talk, said it was interesting to hear a level of calculation in Ricciardo’s move considering the eight-time race winner seemed down and out at the end of last season.
“Interesting … was the fact that Daniel alluded to something that we’d all kind of assumed but that he’d never said explicitly,” he said. “He was a bit more purposeful in arriving at his position to go to Red Bull specifically because Red Bull has form for this kind of wild decision-making.”
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Co-host Mat Coch, Speedcafe’s F1 editor, said it was a reminder that Ricciardo’s happy-go-lucky demeanour hid a cool determination not often acknowledged off the track.
“Behind that smile is a very calculated, very intelligent individual who perhaps hams it up a little bit for the cameras at times,” he said. “But it just goes to show even though he was saying, ‘I’m not done with F1. I’m not sure that I’ll come back, but I’m not ready to call it a day’ — he was very clearly not done with F1.
“You don’t make those sorts of moves on the off-chance you’ll get an easy way back into Formula 1 if you don’t want to come back into Formula 1.
“I think he’s had a six-month game plan in the works. He’s probably been having little words in Christian (Horner) and Helmut’s ears all the way along, I’d say.”
There were rumours as early as May that Ricciardo was being considered as a replacement for the struggling De Vries, but the 34-year-old said it wasn’t until later that month, at the Monaco Grand Prix, that he realised his heart was set on an F1 comeback.
“The first race I attended was Melbourne, and it was cool because it was my home race and I was in a pretty awesome environment,” he told the F1 website. “But deep down I was still kind of letting it build up. I wasn’t foaming at the mouth back in Melbourne, but it was building.
“Monaco was where I was watching qualifying — it was a great qualifying, it was very exciting; as a fan I was like, ‘That was cool’.
“Monaco is so special, and that’s where I was really starting to get like, ‘Being in a car around here would be really fun’.”