Daniel Ricciardo claims ‘he was doing too much’ before getting axed by McLaren

Daniel Ricciardo has not had the smoothest of rides in F1 since leaving Red Bull.

Daniel Ricciardo claims ‘he was doing too much’ before getting axed by McLaren

Christian Horner and Daniel Ricciardo (Credits: Imago)

Daniel Ricciardo, the former 8-time Grand Prix winner, had quite a 2023 F1 season. Firstly, he did not have a racing seat after getting axed by McLaren at the end of 2022, and then, all of a sudden was pushed into AlphaTauri’s AT04. Overall, it was a productive campaign for him but he has recently admitted the time off he had from F1 after 2022 made him realize a lot of things.

Daniel Ricciardo has made it known that during his time off from the sport, he realized that during his career, he was doing too many things sometimes. He feels the time off helped him immensely in re-setting his frame of mind and making sure that he was giving the right amount of time to things of importance.

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While talking about the same in detail, he said as reported by RaceFans;

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There’s so much going on and there’s so many things that you can be doing and it’s all really exciting and really fun. I love that stuff, of course, because it’s a new experience and it’s great. But having the time off at the start of the year, I realized that I was probably doing too much sometimes and probably even not prioritizing myself in terms of my body and my recovery.

Looking at the reaction of the 34-year-old, it is safe to assume that he regrets some of the unnecessary he did in the past while competing at the pinnacle of motor racing. Moreover, has admitted that sometimes he was so involved that he did not even care about his own well-being.

Daniel Ricciardo’s current F1 run is most probably his last

While Daniel Ricciardo has talked about ceratin things that happened in the past, his current run at the pinnacle of motor racing is most probably, his last chance of doing something special in the sport. Ricciardo has set his eyes on securing the 2025 seat on the Red Bull F1 team.

Daniel Ricciardo (Credits: Planet F1)
Daniel Ricciardo (Credits: Planet F1)

Sergio Perez’s current deal will come to a close at the end of 2024, and after that, the second seat on the team could go to anyone. Ricciardo will be seen driving for AlphaTauri again next year and thus, will try to put in as many good performances as possible to stay in the Red Bull picture.

Christian Horner has several times made it known that Daniel Ricciardo is a real contendor for the 2025 seat at Red Bull and the onus is really on the latter to put in consistent performances next year and give himself a fare chance of securing the coveted seat alongside Max Verstappen.

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