It is officially the Daniel Ricciardo return weekend. The Australian will be back on track and racing for the first time since the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP. There is a lot of excitement around Ricciardo’s return and all eyes will be set on his performance at the weekend. However, there is one man who isn’t worried about the hype and the competition coming to AlphaTauri. In fact, Yuki Tsunoda has quickly drawn battle lines ahead of the race weekend.

Ricciardo is the fan favorite, and even for some in the Red Bull camp, for the promotion. However, Tsunoda does not care about the preliminary polls tipping in favor of Ricciardo and wanted to bring some attention back to him. The Japanese driver, while speaking to Crash, outlined his ambitions.

“It’ll be clear soon, but either driver will be slower and the slower guy won’t make it to Red Bull,” said Tsunoda. “That’s easy, the faster guy has more chance to go to Red Bull, it’s how it works in Formula1, that’s it.”

Even though he will be paired against an experienced driver like Ricciardo, Tsunoda will carry his mentality. The same mentality he had when he was competing with de Vries for the Red Bull reward.

“It’s a challenge always,” the Japanese driver added. “In the end, it doesn’t make much difference, Daniel or Nyck, whatever. Anyway, I have to do the same thing I was doing to Nyck, you need to beat your teammate, that’s the most important thing.”

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Tsunoda is not afraid of Ricciardo’s challenge and is only focused on getting his promotion to the Red Bull seat. Although Ricciardo is of a completely different mindset now.

Despite the hype, Daniel Ricciardo reveals his outlook toward life with or without Formula 1

The Australian brutally was kicked off his McLaren seat and made the puzzling decision of staying away from the track. However, just six months into his hiatus, the Honey Badger is back. Perhaps a little prematurely than planned, but life hardly ever goes according to plan. Although, what even Ricciardo couldn’t have predicted was how he would fare about stepping away from the sport.

The time he spent away from the track changed his outlook toward life after Formula 1. So even though Ricciardo will be racing for the Red Bull seat in the next 12 races, he will be not burdened by the thought of losing.

Revealing this outlook to the media, Ricciardo said, “I’ve had a really nice year, I’ve done things. Life after racing is totally fine and I have other hobbies and interests. I don’t think that’s a discouraging thought for me.”

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Imagining a life without racing and outside F1 is difficult for every driver, especially when they’re racing week in and week out. However, a break has done more good than bad for Ricciardo and he’s welcome to an alternate life away from the pressure pot of F1.