“The Guy to Beat”: Daniel Ricciardo’s Ironic Glorious Beginning Relived With F1 Doors Closing Down on the Red Bull Veteran

Every sport has its own ‘What if?’ scenarios. What if Daniel Ricciardo never left Red Bull in 2019 for Renault will be Formula 1’s most intriguing what ifs. The supposed lack of patience took away from us potentially what could’ve been a lightning career after the glimpses that we saw in his early Red Bull years. Nevertheless, not everything happens as we desire, as the future of the honey badger in F1 appears bleak after recent developments.

Last year, after losing the McLaren seat, Ricciardo had options at Haas and Alpine as well. Eventually, he decided to take a break, which could prove costly, as the wheels of fate have turned quite an angle. Once a glorious career has now taken a steep downturn.

Recently, this was also discussed by his former teammate Daniil Kvyat, who replaced Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull in 2015. The Russian driver reflected back on the aura and charisma that Ricciardo carried when he was racing at his prime with Red Bull and how he was the talk of the town.

As quoted by Turkish Motorsport from the Track Limits podcast, the 28-year-old said, “Daniel Ricciardo was like a great superstar at the time, when I came to the team, it was a short time to beat Vettel. Everyone was pretty excited for him, everybody was talking ‘he’s the guy to beat, he’s the best driver on the grid right now’. “

“Now the situation is of course different, but at that time he was a top-notch pilot. The year 2015 I just arrived at Red Bull was a big year for me. My impression of him was that he had a very funny personality at the time and was very attractive to the media, we still got along well.” 

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Daniel Ricciardo is back at Red Bull now and will be testing in September. However, apart from that, the chances of a seat opening up for him with his supposed exorbitant salary are unlikely to happen.

Daniel Ricciardo remains unfazed and unscared

The competition in Formula 1 is probably one of the fiercest of all sports. With increasing age and reduced chances, fans are concerned and want to see Ricciardo back on the grid in any way possible. But the Aussie has other things in mind.

Ricciardo, enjoying the time of his life as the third driver, wants to get back but would not take just any seat thrown at him. Quoted by F1, he said, “It doesn’t scare me. It’s always been like that. And I knew this was going to be a risk obviously removing myself from a seat. But I think it’s clear what I don’t want. I don’t want [just] any seat next year, as much as I think I want to be racing again.” After his forgettable stint at McLaren, it does make sense for Ricciardo to not compromise.

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What Danny does next can be predicted by no one. What do you think—should he take up any seat offered? Or wait for the right one to come around, if it does at all?