WATCH: Max Verstappen peeps through the stage curtains to lend support for former teammate Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen shared a funny moment when Daniel claimed he has eyes on the Formula 1 World Championship in 2024.

WATCH: Max Verstappen peeps through the stage curtains to lend support for former teammate Daniel Ricciardo

The Formula 1 2023 season is over now and the drivers are all enjoying their time away from the race tracks. But the F1 town is still talking about several moments from this year that have changed the course of the career of some drivers. One such incident occurred at the Faenza headquarters of AlphaTauri where Nyck deVries entered at the start of the 2023 season with huge expectations to live up to. The former Formula 2 and Formula E Champion could not impress his recruiters as he failed to get points for his team and was repeatedly outperformed by Yuki Tsunoda. Ultimately, DeVries got replaced by Daniel Ricciardo in the middle of the year.

Australian heartthrob Ricciardo lost his seat at McLaren to Oscar Piastri earlier than expected as the papaya army prematurely terminated his contract. Then, he moved to Red Bull, the team where he had formerly served as Max Verstappen’s teammate. Ricciardo served as a reserve driver for the Austrian team until RBR Chief Advisor Helmut Marko placed him beside Tsunoda to race for AlphaTauri in the place of DeVries. This completely changed the course of Daniel Ricciardo’s career. Naturally, he became the talk of the town with interviewers wondering what Ricciardo’s next step in F1 might be.

Now, it has been declared that Daniel Ricciardo will accompany Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri for 2024 as well. At one of the interviews, he was asked what he believes his next move in Formula 1 would be, and he joked that he is targeting the World Championship. Little did he know that the reigning F1 Champion Max Verstappen was hiding behind the curtains of the dias and he was listening in on Ricciardo’s conversation.

Max Verstappen cheers for Daniel Ricciardo to chase his target for F1 2024

Daniel Ricciardo turned up at a press interview alongside his AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda and was asked about his targets for 2024. At that time, the Australian racer cracked a witty joke and sarcastically remarked that he would be hoping to win the World Championship next year. Max Verstappen, who has been teammates with the Honey Badger in the past, poked his head in and cheered him on.

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Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen(via Twitter)

Ricciardo has already been quite vocal about feeling at home at AlphaTauri despite his months-long break from competitive racing in Formula 1.

I think I came to the kind of place where I was totally happy and comfortable at that time driving for the 10th place team on the grid, where last year when I said I don't want to jump back into a car if it's fighting at the back, it didn't make sense for me. But slowly it started to make more and more sense.
Daniel Ricciardo talked about his experience at AlphaTauri, via Autosport.com.

In other news, Ricciardo’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda recently gave a heartfelt tribute to AlphaTauri’s former Team Principal Franz Tost. He even claimed that the Austrian is the reason why Yuki is currently racing at the highest pinnacle of motorsports.

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