After being fired from McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo rested for several months and then returned, first becoming a reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and then replacing Nick de Vries at AlphaTauri. In an interview with RacingNews365, he said this helped him believe in himself again.
Daniel Ricciardo: “When I got behind the wheel of the Red Bull simulator after Christmas, I realized that this wasn’t really me. I lacked confidence and was a bit nervous.
After the move to McLaren problems arose. We tried to solve them, but things didn’t get better, especially in 2022. I realized that not only our results were dropping, but so was my self-confidence.
With the McLaren I couldn’t use my strengths. We started experimenting, I tried to change my flying style. My self-confidence started to drop.
There are many factors in our sport. You are always compared to your teammate. And if your partner performs successfully, then all attention is focused on you. The pressure is increasing and your engineer feels it too, which means the situation can quickly get out of hand. It was important for me to take a break.
Once I started working on the Red Bull simulator my confidence started to return, especially when I saw that I was setting good lap times.
I tested at Silverstone, which was also successful, and I told myself I had to go back to a team that feels the car is my car.
I arrived at the Hungarian Grand Prix and even though I hadn’t driven this AlphaTauri car yet, I immediately felt at ease. I have regained my old self-confidence.
Apparently I had to take a step back in order to take two steps forward. Restart. I enjoy racing for AlphaTauri much more than I could ever have imagined. This team gives me confidence.
They have big plans for next year. The team will no longer be Red Bull’s youth division and plans to compete at the forefront of mid-range teams, with a little more support from Red Bull.
The energy is being channeled in the right direction, but we’ll see. My goal is to return to Red Bull. I would love to end my career there.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
