Daniel Ricciardo says he is raring to go and ready to “have fun” after securing a stunning F1 comeback with AlphaTauri as of the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, a move that will break his half-year absence from the sport. As per F1, having parted ways with McLaren at the end of 2022, Ricciardo chose to take up a reserve role at former team Red Bull for 2023, duties that have included simulator work and a taste of the RB19 during a recent Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone, but he will now return to full-time action in place of the axed Nyck de Vries. It marks a full-circle moment for the 34-year-old Australian, who made his F1 debut with Hispania Racing midway through the 2011 campaign, before progressing to Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) and then Red Bull, where he claimed seven of his eight Grand Prix wins.Sitting down for an exclusive chat with F1’s Lawrence Barretto, Ricciardo opened up about his return, how a second spell in the Red Bull family has helped him get back to the “normal Daniel” and what’s possible with AlphaTauri going forward.
“It’s good, it’s really good!” Ricciardo beamed as the conversation kicked off. “I enjoyed this call it’s six months off I think it was really good for me. But the more races I started to attend, the more sim I started to do, I was certainly getting the bug back, so to speak. “Then jumping into the car a few days ago, I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’, it all felt very normal. It was one of those ones, the very first lap, ‘Oh, this is fast!’, then within a few, it’s, ‘Ok, I want to go faster now!’, so it was really good.” Ricciardo added that he stayed ready “at all times” to ensure he could fully embrace any opportunity to return to the grid, which he admitted was “in the back of my mind” given the unpredictable nature of F1.
