Daniel Ricciardo’s dire downward spiral during his final months at McLaren led to him “wishing the races away” as he struggled for motivation to compete in Formula 1.
Ricciardo, 34 years old, is attempting to jumpstart his F1 career with backmarker RB, formerly AlphaTauri, where he hopes to recapture his old sizzling form and vie for Sergio Pérez’s seat at Red Bull Racing.
Ending his career at the dominant constructors champion would have seemed unthinkable less than a year ago, when the popular Aussie was out of a full-time job on the F1 grid.
Watch the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX LIVE in 4K and ad-break free during racing. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
McLaren had sacked him 18 months into what was supposed to have been a three-year deal as its senior leader. Instead he’d been usurped by young gun Lando Norris and eventually dispatched as surplus to requirements.
While McLaren bore some of the responsibility for failing to provide a winning car — bar that one shining afternoon at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix — the reputational damage to Ricciardo was far greater.
So too was the hit on his confidence.
Untethered from the grid an unsure about whether he wanted to continue in a sport he’d once been tipped to dominate as a ferocious wheel-to-wheel racer, Ricciardo admitted he was content to let the races slip by him towards what could have been a forced retirement from F1.
“From that mid-point of 2022 when I basically didn’t have a job and was unsure what I was going to do, I was almost wishing the races away, wanting the season to be done with,” he told The Age.
“I found it hard to be very present in that time, I had to fight to actually enjoy the job.
“In 2022, I struggled with that and just wanted it to be over.”
PIT TALK PODCAST: While Red Bull Racing are dominating on the track, off the track the team is eating itself, with Max Verstappen the latest high-profile identity to be linked to a potential exit in the fast-moving political drama.
Ricciardo’s plan was to take a sabbatical to rediscover the passion for competition that had evaporated in those long, difficult weekends griding out the days with McLaren.
The path back to the grid was unclear, but rescuing his career was secondary to rescuing his self-belief.
He tied himself to alma mater Red Bull Racing as a reserve driver, where immediately the sense of familiarity restored a flicker of optimism.
The story of his 2023 is well known now. He ended up sidelined for only 10 grands prix, after which time the underperforming Nyck de Vries was turfed out of the then AlphaTauri team to make room for Red Bull’s prodigal son.
There were the simulator sessions, the Silverstone tyre test, the Mexico City Grand Prix — all highlights in a fallow career period.
But the most important part of the year was what happened off the track, when Ricciardo remained in his native Western Australia.
With the F1 circus rolling on without him, he had his first chance in years to decompress and reorganise his life with his own competitive wellbeing at the centre.
“I got my energy and my excitement back by pushing a few things to the side, cutting out a lot of clutter,” he said.
“I wanted to be able to fall back in love with training again, but to train and to train well you need to get some time back in your life to do that properly. You can’t do a million other things because you have no window to train, and then maybe you’re not as strong or as healthy or as fresh as you should be, and it spirals.
“I wanted to get that feeling back again, to bring out the old me. Racing and training are my priorities right now, and all of the other stuff is secondary.”
There was no comparison between the Ricciardo at the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix, where he made his first appearance since being sacked, and the Daniel who reappeared in the paddock in Hungary last year.
Smiling and energised again as though he’d never left — or perhaps as though he’d never been embattled at McLaren to begin with — Ricciardo was back.
Internal Red Bull war still simmering | 01:32
“Coming back last year, I found that I wasn’t thinking about anything else because I was truly happy doing what I was doing.
“I was in love with the sport again, with driving and competing.”
Ricciardo’s challenge to return to the front is far from finished.
Pérez’s Red Bull Racing seat is his prize, but with the Mexican performing strongly in the first two grands prix of the season, there’s no guarantee the seat will be spilt ahead of 2025.
Ricciardo must also mount a strong case to be the man who assumes the plum drive, and so far 2024 has been inconclusive.
He’s twice been outqualified by Yuki Tsunoda, and it’s been more a function of the peaky RB car that the Ricciardo has ended up near the Japanese driver on the road at the chequered flag, once ahead and once behind.
The 34-year-old Aussie has already been given the hurry-up by the notoriously unforgiving Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, who has historically held sway over RB’s driver line-up.
Ricciardo suggested serious problems had been discovered in his car during his underwhelming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend.
“It feels like it’s been a pretty slow start to the year, but it’s been two races,” Ricciardo said after the race. “I know how quickly this thing can turn around.
“There’s not too much head scratching right now. It’s just a frustrating weekend, but it’s not that we don’t have answers. I think it’s quite clear.
“We’ve just got to polish her up and make sure it’s good to go for Melbourne.”
Melbourne is far from his last chance to correct his trajectory, but his home grand prix would be a powerful place to get his 2024 season firing on all cylinders.