Struggling Daniel Ricciardo Tipped to Become “Hot Property” Again if He Follows F1 Wild Card’s Footsteps: “Look at What Happened With…”

Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren have parted ways for good. During the 2022 summer break, both parties agreed to mutually terminate the contract. As Ricciardo bid adieu to the British racing team, he has rejoined Red Bull Racing as a reserve driver and his ex-team boss, Zak Brown, believes that with this offer, Ricciardo’s future can ‘turn on a dime.‘

Ricciardo drove for McLaren for two underwhelming seasons. The performance that the British racing team was expecting from the 33-year-old didn’t show. So McLaren decided to cut their ties with the Australian. Despite all of that, Zak Brown, the team principal of McLaren, who has been a big fan of Daniel Ricciardo, feels that what happened with Nyck de Vries can surely happen with the Honey Badger.

In a recent interview with Motorsport.com, Brown said, “Look at what happened with Nyck with one good session. All of a sudden he became hot property.”

“So if one of those guys [at Red Bull] couldn’t race for some reason, and he [Ricciardo] hopped in and all of a sudden he took that car to where it is now, it can just turn on a dime.”

De Vries seized the opportunity to race for Williams at Monza this year and has now got a seat at AlphaTauri.

READ MORE: Daniel Ricciardo Gets Real on Hopeless McLaren Moments That Made Him Say: “S*rew This… I’m Done”

As the Australian struggled in his McLaren MCL36 for a better part of the year, last month, Zak Brown revealed how he took the tough decision to replace Ricciardo.

Zak Brown opens up about how he made the tough call to replace Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren decided to replace Ricciardo with his compatriot Oscar Piastri. The 33-year-old was arguably never found settled in the team during his run of two years with them. Apart from the win at the Italian Grand Prix, the Honey Badger seemed to struggle with pace and consistency.

Besides, his younger teammate, Lando Norris was too quick behind the same machinery. To terminate the contract of an experienced and one of the most popular characters of F1 was a tough call for CEO Zak Brown. Last month Brown in an interview with Fox Sports opened up about how he made a tough call to replace the 33-year-old.

He said, “Ultimately, we weren’t getting the results we needed and we were a year-and-a-half into this. We’ve all tried extremely hard. We love Daniel, he’s great to work with and continues to be great to work with. But we are in the results business and the results weren’t coming and we felt we tried everything.”

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An athlete like Riccardo is always a step away to regain his form. His fans will be eagerly waiting for the Honey Badger to return to the grid in 2024.