Daniel Ricciardo has revealed how he was determined to ensure the hand injury that halted his Formula 1 comeback last year wouldn’t derail his renewed enthusiasm for racing.
The Australian was axed by McLaren at the end of 2022 after two torrid years where he was heavily outclassed by team-mate Lando Norris on either side of a regulation change.
Having returned to the Red Bull stable, Ricciardo was handed an F1 reprieve when Nyck de Vries was ousted from AlphaTauri only 10 races into his rookie F1 campaign.
With Ricciardo to partner Yuki Tsunoda again next season at the rebranded RB team, the multiple-time race winner will be bidding to stake his claim for a Red Bull drive in 2024.
Expanding upon his approach to his second stint, Ricciardo has discussed how the period detached from a full-time racing schedule provided him a new lease of life.
“When you go through something, obviously it can change you a little bit and give you maybe a different perspective, or make you appreciate the good times more or understand how to handle the low,” he told Autosport. “Or when you were down, maybe then you realise what’s important to you and what isn’t.
“So, just through all of that stuff, I think you learn a lot about yourself. And I think coming out of it, I realised that I still really love this, I still do believe in myself.”
Ricciardo has admitted that he exhausted every avenue to get on top of McLaren’s machinery to no avail, which resulted in him temporarily losing his desire to compete.
But having rediscovered his passion, the 34-year-old has reiterated that he wants his racing to be the thing he’s recognised for without getting bogged down in the details.
“I don’t want to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, because it should still be fun. And yes, I’m going to take it seriously,” he explained.
“I’m going to try to be the best version of myself. But I just don’t want it to consume every part of me to a point where I’m not enjoying other aspects of my life, because then that’s just not the way it should be. And that’s not the way I’ve always gone about racing.”
However, Ricciardo’s return was disrupted after two races when he broke his hand in what he described as a “pretty pathetic crash” in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix.
Although he missed five races on the sidelines, Ricciardo has divulged how his attitude was to avoid the enforced break eradicating the reinstalled drive he’d built up.
“I just felt hungry and motivated again, like my old self, and I was loving it. So then for that to happen, it did temporarily take a bit of wind out of my sails,” he explained.
“I just tried to think ahead, to the quickest way I can get better and recover again, and I just refused to let the hard work I’d put in the whole year to get back to that place come undone because of an injury.”
Reflecting on his premature exit from McLaren, Ricciardo concedes the departure proved to be a “blessing in disguise” as it gave him the opportunity to mentally reset.
“Look, as uncomfortable at times the McLaren situation was, it was a blessing in disguise,” he professed.
“Let’s say they cancelled my contract because I needed to step away to kind of re-find myself, re-find my love and get the hunger back as well.
“I think there were a lot of elements that had just been a little bit hurt or bruised from it all, like my drive and my motivation.
“So, I just needed to find that again and that time away gave that to me.”
