Daniel Ricciardo‘s Formula 1 career has taken the opposite trajectory to what he might have wanted it to. A driver of his caliber, who has won 8 Grand Prix in his career, found himself in a rut during his stint with McLaren. Except for 1 race win at Monza in 2021, nothing went right for the Australian racer, which led to his eventual exit from the team. Now, as he finds himself back in familiar territory with Red Bull and in the groove again, his close aide and race engineer has revealed how “hollow” the Honey Badger was after driving for Zak Brown and Co.

In 2023, Ricciardo finally made his way back to where he started his F1 career. He has shared a lot of successes with Red Bull in the past. His long-time race engineer and now Group Leader of Simulation Engineering, Simon Rennie played a pivotal part in his triumphs. In the latest episode of RB’s ‘Talking Bull’ podcast, Ricciardo was speaking about how he restarted his journey with the Milton-Keynes outfit. But as soon as he began answering the host, Nicola Hume’s question and talking about the good side, Rennie interjected to show what the brutal reality was.

“I don’t think it was as easy as you thought it was gonna be,” Rennie said, interrupting Ricciardo’s answer. “When he first came back, I was quite surprised, knowing Daniel, how he was.” After a pause, he continued, “I didn’t say this to you at the time.” To urge him to go ahead and speak his heart out, Nicola said, “Therapy session. It’s fine.”

This is where the Honey Badger chimed in to say that he doesn’t deny it. So, Rennie elaborated, saying, “You were definitely not as confident as I know you are and you were just like a little bit hollow in a way and felt like you were doubting yourself a little bit and you were concerned about whether you could do it again. Obviously, you’ve done good success with us and the last couple of years haven’t been quite successful.”

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It certainly looks like driving for McLaren took the life out of him. But this year, he has finally breathed a sigh of relief. Still, the problems haven’t stopped coming his way. He currently finds himself out of racing action with a broken left hand. Nonetheless, he has managed to stay positive in the face of adversity.

F1 presenter Lawrence Barretto discloses Daniel Ricciardo’s buoyant approach to physical recovery

Daniel Ricciardo finally got an opportunity to race as a driver for AlphaTauri after months of testing in the RB simulator. And in his first two outings, he showed good pace, even bettering teammate Yuki Tsunoda on one occasion. But the Dutch GP stalled things as his crash at Turn 3 in a practice session led to a broken metacarpal of his left hand.

It has been nearly 2 weeks since that incident. Giving an update on the situation, F1 presenter Lawrence Barretto said, “Sources say Daniel Ricciardo is cracking on with rehab but it might be some time before he returns. He’s remaining upbeat, though. Sensibly, he’s waiting to be fully fit before coming back. There’s no point rushing, especially as he had impressed in his first two races back.”

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Will the AlphaTauri racer be able to perform at his best this season once he returns to the grid after a full recovery?