Daniel Ricciardo says rejoining Red Bull Racing and reuniting with former race engineer Simon Rennie have made him understand how deeply his McLaren years damaged his self-esteem.
Ricciardo was poached from Renault to McLaren in 2021 to become Woking’s team leader ahead of the change of regulations the following season.
But the highly rated Aussie never clicked with McLaren’s machinery. He was thoroughly beaten by junior teammate Lando Norris and left the team at the end of 2022 with one year still to run on his contract.
Watch every practice, qualifying and race of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship live and ad-break free in racing on Kayo Sports. Join now and start streaming instantly >
The eight-time race winner passed up opportunities to race in the midfield, saying at the time that he wasn’t sure whether his heart was still in continuing his F1 career. He instead committed to a season on the sidelines as Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver to give himself time to discover his passion for the sport.
His reserve program included simulator work, which allowed him the opportunity to assess where his skills sat relative to his time racing at the team in 2014–18, when he was widely regarded as one of the grid’s slickest operators.
Speaking to Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast, Ricciardo said he was nervous to put himself to the test on his first day back at Milton Keynes.
“I was a little bit apprehensive,” he said. “My confidence had been knocked about the last 12 or 18 months.
“When you’re trying to be the best in the world at something, for sure you’re going to have ups and downs — some days you’re going to think you’re invincible and other days you won’t.
“I think there was just a bit of a consistency [during] the last little bit where I no longer felt invincible or awesome.”
Red Bull Racing simulation engineering group leader Simon Rennie, who was previously Ricciardo’s race engineer, said their early days in the simulator during the 2022–23 off-season were more difficult than both he and the Aussie had expected.
“I don’t think that was as easy as you thought it was going to be,” he said alongside Ricciardo on Talking Bull. “When he first came back I was quite surprised, knowing Daniel, how he was.
“I didn’t say this to you at the time. You were definitely not as confident as I know you are, and you were just a little bit hollow in a way, and it felt like you were doubting yourself a little bit and you were a bit concerned about whether you could do it again.
“It didn’t necessarily click straight away in the simulator. That first day that we did together, I don’t know if you left with a good feeling or not after that first day. You still seemed a little bit unsure of it all.”
PIT TALK: Ferrari couldn‘t stop Max Verstappen to winning a record-breaking 10th consecutive grand prix on what was an entertaining afternoon in Monza — so long as you weren’t McLaren principal Andrea Stella, who had to watch Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris engage in friendly fire partway through the race.
But Rennie said the rejuvenation process accelerated once Ricciardo had spent some time at home to decompress from his bruising McLaren years.
“The next time you were in, you were already a bit more bouncy,” he said. “You were halfway back to being yourself.
“Then we had a good day on the simulator and I think you just drove it naturally like you wanted to do, and it just sort of clicked a little bit. The confidence then snowballed, and you built and built and built.
“Then by the end of that day or the next day you felt like, ‘Yeah, he’s back again’ and it was more like a normal Daniel that we were used to from the past.
“But it was really mad. The first time that we saw him again he was a bit subdued, I’d say. It’s nice to see him back again.”
Despite Ricciardo’s transition out of McLaren and onto the F1 sidelines being the most difficult moment of his professional career, the 34-year-old said he found descriptions like Rennie’s reassuring because they helped him to believe he could be better than he had been for the previous two seasons.
“I don’t mind hearing that at all, because it also makes me feel a little bit better in a way about the last year,” he said. “Obviously my results weren’t what I expected from myself, what anyone probably expected from me.
“I think stepping out of that and having a bit of time off over summer [helped], knowing I wasn’t going to be racing this year, so just having time to think about other things.
“Obviously people were aware, and then I became aware of, ‘Oh yeah, okay, I had lost a little bit of something internally’.”
Verstappen wins historic 10th Grand Prix | 01:20
Ricciardo paid credit to Rennie for helping to return him to competitive health.
“The last few years obviously I’ve gone through a few different teams and experiences,” he said. “I’ll always try and make an environment work, but I think also stepping back into not only Red Bull but working alongside someone like Simon, who I’d had such a good relationship with and we’d had a lot of success together, it just kind of flowed effortlessly, and I was like, ‘Ah, this is what I need’.”
Ricciardo’s recovery in the simulator led him back into the cockpit for sister team AlphaTauri, where he replaced Nyck de Vries before the mid-season break.
He’s since said he’s decided to end his career in the Red Bull family regardless of whether he got a shot to race for the senior team alongside Max Verstappen again.
Expanding on that idea, he said no other team had given him as great a sense of belonging as the one that brought him into Formula 1.
“It’s not a knock on the last few years or anything,” he explained on Talking Bull. “Certainly the way I am, I always try and make a place feel as comfortable as possible. I do enjoy working with people, so I’ve felt like I’ve always been able to maintain a relatively good environment around me.
“But there are obviously levels to that, and this is certainly one that has been unmatched for me.
“I think coming back into it four or five years on made me realise just how special it is to me — a lot of good memories and stuff.
“Just that connection to home — it’s quite a powerful word. A sense of belonging to somewhere or someone is really strong.
“That’s what I feel, and coming back here as well, it was very evident. Everyone was so warm and welcoming.
“Even working with Simon, it’s kind of like we just we picked up where we left off. That kind of feeling of familiarity as well, I think that’s proven that this place does feel right for me.
“Even people around me, outside of the racing world — these are their words, so I’m not saying I’m talking like this about myself — were saying, ‘You’re glowing. You look great again. You look a bit more weightless’.
“I’d put on weight, but my aura was weightless!”
McLaren crackdown after Piastri clash | 01:08
Though Ricciardo’s planned gap year was reduced to little more than six months, the three-time pole-getter said it had been enough for him to learn some crucial lessons to sustain him for the rest of his career.
“I think the older you get you realise that not everything is perfect and sometimes you will struggle, but I think that’s where I really have enjoyed the struggles,” he said.
“As much as they suck, they really allow you to search for some answers and learn more about yourself, and whether that’s through self-learning or observing how others have observed me and hearing how I’m being seen, I think it’s all part of it.
“I’ve learned a lot. This year being off the grid for six months and being able to just observe a few things and having the luxury of time and a bit more of a free schedule, I’ve seen things a little differently.
“For sure I look back now and I would say, ‘Oh yes, I should have addressed that sooner with, say, another team, or I should have maybe pushed more for this’.
“Again, this isn’t a bad thing, because it’s self-belief, but I probably thought I was good enough regardless of the situation, the circumstances. I was like, ‘Well, I’ll figure it out. If I’m good enough, I’ll find a way and I’ll still make it work’.
“But I think as well, at this level, everyone’s operating on such a high level that you can’t just do it on your own.
“You might be able to fluke it once or twice, but you can’t sustain that over a 23 or 24-race season — just having the maturity to see things and address them and not think that I am some wonder boy that can magically do it all.”
Ricciardo has returned to the sidelines after breaking his hand at Zandvoort. He’s expected to return to action for AlphaTauri at the Qatar Grand Prix in early October.