“Not Interested In”: Amid Recovery From McLaren Misery, Daniel Ricciardo’s Sky-High Ambitions Justified by F1 Veteran

Because our memory is short-lived, we remember a gloomy phase of Daniel Ricciardo‘s career when we saw him massively struggling in McLaren. Can you believe he is the same driver who made a triple overtake at Baku in 2017 to claim those medieval streets? Even if we cannot, the honey badger certainly can. His only aim is to make a comeback with a top team, but then was there any truth to the whole uproar around AlphaTauri seat fitting?

The past week has seen hundreds of stories around the likelihood of Daniel replacing the AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries. But the point of contention remains, will he settle for a seat from which he began his career over a decade ago? 1996 Formula 1 world champion, Damon Hill, throws some light on that in the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

He said, “Realistically, what has Daniel Ricciardo got to gain from going up against either Nyck or Yuki Tsunoda in an AlphaTauri? He has been there, he has done that. He is not after that. I don’t think he will. There is nothing more to this than this, if there is a need for a reserve driver situation he might jump in but I can’t see him. He has already said that he is not interested in doing a middling team and now he only wants to be in a car that can win.”

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While we still don’t if the comeback will happen at all, everyone is hopeful. Some even urged the Australian to follow in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher.

Daniel Ricciardo urged to take a leaf out of Michael Schumacher’s book

Antti Vierula, ex-trainer of Lewis Hamilton, has explained the impact of Ricciardo’s break. He stated that though there is an impact of taking a long break, it might not be as brutal if the break is a small, calculated one. He said, if one sits out a season, there won’t be any impact. And even urged Dany to see how Michael made a comeback.

He said, “There are not too many examples of comebacks, although Michael Schumacher did back in the day and I hope Daniel can find a seat too. He’s young and talented, keeping himself busy, so I don’t see the issue. Maybe the first few days of testing will be difficult, but I think it would be fairly quick.”

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Do you think Daniel Ricciardo will make a come on the Formula 1 grid in 2024?