Ricciardo and McLaren parted methods two years right into a three-year contract after the Australian struggled to get snug within the Woking staff’s Components 1 automobiles, largely failing to match team-mate Lando Norris.
Ricciardo steadily misplaced himself making an attempt to dig his means out of his MCL36-shaped gap, having tried to pressure his driving fashion to such a level that Red Bull “didn’t recognise” him when he returned to his former team’s simulator as a 3rd driver.
His McLaren woes additionally affected Ricciardo mentally, having misplaced his enthusiasm for motorsport as he launched into a sabbatical slightly than making an attempt to safe a seat additional down the grid or in another championship.
At Zandvoort the 34-year-old defined he wasn’t certain if he would ever return to racing in any respect earlier than rebuilding his confidence at Crimson Bull, which led to a mid-season AlphaTauri return.
“Six months in the past I wasn’t certain if I might get again within the sport, or race once more,” Ricciardo revealed.
“Even now, each weekend is a bonus. I’m right here, I’m racing, I’m loving it. I’m going to get pleasure from it. There’s not likely an excessive amount of stress or something.
“I really feel I’ve a degree to show however I’m not carrying an excessive amount of weight with that.”
Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo felt there have been parallels with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who stated he’s making an attempt to consciously get pleasure from racing in F1 extra after his personal comeback, slightly than simply residing race to race.
“That’s actually what I’ve been making an attempt to get again to,” Ricciardo stated. “Get again to the early days and the core of why I obtained into this and the issues that motivated me and why I wished to be right here on this place.
“Simply strip every thing again and get again to the pure enjoyment of the game and the love of it.
“It in all probability obtained a bit clouded over the past 12 months or two and I actually discovered myself not in a spot the place I used to be having fun with it as a lot as I wished.
“I spoke really to Fernando, I bear in mind it was on a flight. He touched on the time without work and the advantages of that and I actually really feel that.”
Ricciardo managed to kickstart his F1 return together with his {old} Faenza outfit by finishing two races earlier than the summer time break, which he then obtained to digest through the summer time break and has left him “in a superb place”.
“I’m undoubtedly taking it race by race however I need to be racing for a number of extra years now,” he added.
“I believe six months in the past that was not my reply. I really feel like I do have that younger vitality once more, that motivation and in the end that happiness and that like to be again on the grid and to be racing.
“I am in a superb place. Through the six months off, I did loads of private progress or reflecting and simply obtained issues proper once more.
“Clearly I’ve solely had the 2 races however these two races, not solely on-track however I believe off-track and the best way the weekend ran and the way I felt on a private degree, was precisely what I wished.
“I believe that was in all probability what I would been on the lookout for a short while.”