Ricciardo: Leaving McLaren early “a blessing in disguise”

Ricciardo was dropped at the end of 2022 following another disappointing year with McLaren.

Unprepared to join either Haas or Williams, Ricciardo decided to sign for Red Bull as their third driver.

It proved to be a good decision as he was moved into AlphaTauri in place of Nyck de Vries for the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards.

His comeback was put on pause after his crash at the Dutch Grand Prix, injuring his wrist in the process.

Ricciardo is now expected to return at the United States Grand Prix later this month.

In an interview with Goodwood, he reflected on his McLaren exit.

“It’s never the way you want to end something,” Ricciardo said. “Obviously, the results weren’t there.

“I’m a pretty easy-going guy, I got on with the team, and I didn’t fall out with anyone in the team, but it’s all performance-based and, let’s say, the business side of it didn’t work out.

“At the time, it was a bit of a harsh reality getting fired, but by the end of the season, when I got home for Christmas, I was like, ‘okay, it probably doesn’t help my reputation’, but at that point, I didn’t care anymore. It was a blessing in disguise.

“I needed to step away for a bit, to re-find myself, re-find my love for the sport. If it could have been done in a better way, fine, but at the same time, I don’t think me finishing out the contract this year would have done me any favours.

“I guess, in a way, I thank them for making that decision because we were in a bit of a hole, and I’m not sure we could have got out of it.”

Ricciardo admitted that he felt he lost “some of my strengths” during his McLaren stint - something that was echoed by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner when the Australian tried out the simulator for the first time again in early 2023.

“I genuinely do feel that I lost some of my technique, some of my strengths,” he added.

“It felt like when things weren’t working I had to throw them away, and then I’d try some other stuff but that wouldn’t work, then my confidence would go down.

“I had thoughts that maybe I just couldn’t do it anymore. Period! A lot of stuff got lost along the way, and when I got back into the Red Bull sim, I realised I was not a very confident person. 

“In a way that was a relief for me, to see that I wasn’t operating at the level I thought. It kind of justified some of my performances.

“It’s not making excuses because those performances weren’t good, but it was clear to me that it wasn’t me operating at 100%. Yes, I should have been able to figure it out. I couldn’t, but it was a kind of closure for me that I had got a bit lost but I could rediscover things and get back to being me.”