Ricciardo: Now my priorities are racing and training

Daniel Ricciardo returned to racing with AlphaTauri last year and the return was quite successful, although it was not without challenges as he was injured during practice at Zandvoort and had to miss five rounds.

He was then replaced by Liam Lawson, and the debut of the young New Zealander also attracted everyone’s attention, as he coped with the job quite well, but the team chose to sign a contract for 2024 with Ricciardo. This is due to the decision of the Red Bull management to adapt and strengthen the development path of the team from Faenza with such an experienced professional. as a 34-year-old Australian racer, who has almost two and a half hundred Grand Prix titles, 8 victories and 32 podiums to his name.

“I have been racing in Formula 1 for a long time, have driven a lot of cars and seen a lot. I probably underestimated the knowledge that has been accumulated over the years,” Daniel said in an interview with Australian newspaper The Age. – The team had problems last year and I saw that my experience was useful to them. I liked the questions the team asked me and how they responded to what I recommended.

As you get older, you realize that you can influence the atmosphere in the garage and the work of the entire team. Formula 1 teams employ hundreds of people, but the world’s attention is focused on two drivers, and you are one of them. We don’t just drive cars, we have the ability to influence general sentiment, and I definitely feel that more clearly now.”

In 2022, Ricciardo’s final season at McLaren, his results were very unconvincing and the team decided to end their partnership with him early, leaving him without a contract for the following season. As a result, he returned to Red Bull Racing as a reserve driver, but the forced break in his career allowed him to look differently at the sport that Daniel devoted so many years to, as his debut in Formula 1 took place in 2011. .

“From the middle of the 2022 season, when I was basically unemployed and didn’t know what I was going to do, I almost felt like skipping the remaining races because I wanted the season to be over,” Daniel admitted. “But when I went back to work last year, I realized that I was thinking about nothing but racing, because the work really gave me joy. I fell in love with our sport again, although I had difficulties in 2022 and wanted it to end as soon as possible.

But now that I have put aside everything that was holding me back, I am full of strength and inspiration again. I wanted to feel the urge to train again, but it takes time to train intensely and correctly, and now my priorities in life are only racing and training, and everything else has faded into the background.

Admittedly, the start of the new season did not go well for Ricciardo; he lost twice to Yuki Tsunoda, his teammate, in qualifying and in fact in the races, as the team in Bahrain asked the Japanese to allow Daniel to continue. Of course, he understands that the situation needs to be corrected urgently and in any case before his partner, because Liam Lawson is ready to take his place at any time. However positive Ricciardo’s attitude is now, his future fate directly depends on his results on track.