25 January 2024 , 16:54
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Daniel Ricciardo still laments the fact his heralded Formula 1 return last year was hampered by a "pretty pathetic crash".
The Aussie was brought in from the cold to race for Red Bull's sister team mid-way through the campaign. But he raced just twice before a crash in a practice session at Zandvoort which left him in need of surgery on a broken bone in his hand.
It left him sidelines for five races and meant he competed in just seven in 2023. Fortunately for Ricciardo, the upcoming new campaign provides him with more opportunity to prove himself worthy of his place on the grid.
Still, at the time, it was a difficult blow for the 34-year-old to take. He didn't show it at the time, but he has now admitted it in an interview with Motorsport.com.
"I just felt hungry and motivated again, like my old self, and I was loving it," he said. "So then for [the crash] to happen, it did temporarily take a bit of wind out of my sails.
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"I just tried to think ahead, to the quickest way I can get better and recover again, and I just refused to let the hard work I'd put in the whole year to get back to that place come undone because of an injury."
The fact Ricciardo was ever off the grid in the first place came as an eventual result of his decision to leave Red Bull. He departed at the end of the 2018 season, perhaps in fear of being eclipsed by his emerging team-mate Max Verstappen, and spent the next two years with Renault before switching again to a McLaren team on the rise.
But while Lando Norris could tame the Woking-based squad's difficult cars, Ricciardo failed to do so and, particularly in his second season with the team, was miserable. His stay was cut short by a year which, now he has had time to heal, the Aussie can admit was "a blessing in disguise" and gave him time away that, as it turned out, he really needed.
He said: "When you were down, maybe then you realise what's important to you and what isn't. So, just through all of that stuff, I think you learn a lot about yourself. And I think coming out of it, I realised that I still really love this, I still do believe in myself.
"I don't want to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, because it should still be fun. And yes, I'm going to take it seriously. I'm going to try to be the best version of myself. But I just don't want it to consume every part of me to a point where I'm not enjoying other aspects of my life, because then that's just not the way it should be. And that's not the way I've always gone about racing."