Daniel Ricciardo has mentioned he’s reinvigorated for his go back to Formula One at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, pointing out he has fallen in love with the game once more. The Australian, who will power for AlphaTauri on the Hungaroring, used to be additionally particular in mentioning he used to be concentrated on a go back to the Red Bull crew.
Last week Ricciardo, who used to be Red Bull’s reserve motive force, used to be given the race seat at their sister crew AlphaTauri to interchange the underperforming Nyck de Vries. The mid-season transfer used to be a ruthless transfer and likewise perceived as a possible precursor against Ricciardo being additional promoted to interchange Sergio Pérez at Red Bull.
Ricciardo had persisted two deficient seasons at McLaren in 2021 and 2022, which were a blow to his self belief and the crew let him move, resulting in him taking the reserve motive force slot at Red Bull, with whom he had raced from 2014-2018 and brought seven wins. The 34-year-old had no longer been anticipating to be again in a seat so quickly however talking in Budapest he mentioned he used to be revitalized via the brand new problem.
“Six months ago I wasn’t in a place to jump at an opportunity like this,” he mentioned. “But that’s been the luxury of time, I’ve fallen in love with it again and I feel like I’m being myself again, back in an environment that is giving me a lot of nostalgia.”
The highlight on Ricciardo’s efficiency right here can be intense. Pérez has been thru a run of deficient conferences, failing to make the overall consultation of qualifying within the earlier 5 races, whilst his teammate Max Verstappen is working away with the name in the similar automobile and leads Pérez via 99 issues. Ricciardo’s go back to a race seat is thought of as a step against him doubtlessly changing Pérez, and the Australian admitted a go back to the crew will be the “dream” consequence.
“It’s kind of another chance to make things better,” he mentioned. “I think that’s why I was excited to get back behind the wheel and just kind of show my true self. Even the thought of that excites me. Obviously the dream is a Red Bull seat. Of course that was my wish, but you need to be realistic, and if I want to get back into Red Bull it will be a process, and this is the best path for me at the moment.”
Ricciardo has not driven a car competitively since the end of last season and the AlphaTauri is a handful to manage and is off the pace. He has however tested this year’s Red Bull at Silverstone and his first challenge will be up against his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, the 23-year-old Japanese driver now in his third season with the team.
Ricciardo stated that while there were no specific targets he was expected to reach over the upcoming 12 meetings in order to make his case for retaining the seat or a move up to Red Bull, he knew he had to deliver strong performances.
“There’s no real criteria at the moment,” he said. “But I need to show something, for sure, for next year and beyond, there’s probably no guarantees ever with this sport.”