Daniel Ricciardo will be back on the grid this year in the Hungarian Grand Prix which is to be held in the upcoming race weekend. And Ricciardo revealed that he is ecstatic to be back and is all geared up to “have fun” on the track.
In an interview Daniel Ricciardo revealed that after he parted was with McLaren in 2022, he enjoyed the “6-months-off” as a reserve driver for Red Bull in 2023. By belonging to the latter team, the Australian driver got to test out the RB19 for a Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone and went through induced simulator work. But he will be returning to the grid with AlphaTauri in place of Nyck de Vries and alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
Daniel finds himself in a full-circle moment as he had made his F1 in 2011 with Hispania racing before progressing to Toro Rosso which is now AlphaTauri. After 8 Grand Prix wins, he returns to where it all began and feels that there is a “bug” back in him to be on the track.
When asked about him replacing the previous driver Nyck de Vries, Ricciardo smartly answered that he may get a call soon and he had been with Red Bull long enough to know how they work and how unpredictable life as a F1 driver can be.
The charming 34-year-old driver beamed as he talked about returning to the driver’s seat. “Then jumping into the car a few days ago, I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’ it all felt very normal.” When Daniel sat in the car he was worried if the car would be the way it used to or if he would still be as good as he was. In a sport so cut-throat and competitive Ricciardo does know that one must be the best to stay in it.
He was positively overwhelmed when he returned to Red Bull but he soon settled back into his old self and was ready to embrace whatever opportunity he could get to be back in the game. And after a few sim sessions he fell back in love with racing and his older self, and was ready to go at it again.
When he had received the call from Helmut Marko all he thought was to hear what the Red Bull advisor had to say to him, he did not think much about it and heard him out. He commented on being back with Red bull: “I would say there’s certainly some familiarity, but I also feel at home.
Daniel is familiar with the way the Red Bull family has worked and knows that by working well with AlphaTauri he can build his way up to being a Red Bull driver in the future. He knows the team well and he knows that he will be supported only if he shows the result he would reach where he wanted to.
AlphaTauri is currently at the foot of the rankings with only 2 points under the belt after 10 races in. Ricciardo stated that “the car will be what it is” and he must drive it well and start from the bottom with all he has.