‘Once you leave this sport, you don’t come back,’ Mika Hakkinen warns Daniel Ricciardo about his break year plans for 2023
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Mika Hakkinen and Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo has come to the end of his first stint in his career and won’t be racing on the 2023 grid. The Aussie started his career back in 2011 with Toro Rosso, and later went on to race for Red Bull beating the four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, in his very first season. Ricciardo proved himself to be worthy of a world title, but he never won one.
Ricciardo really never got his chance to fight for the title in a car that could win one. But he still had a few races where he did put himself beside the leaders, on the top step of the podium. He did it eight times in his career but that wasn’t enough to get him a championship. Ricciardo went on to Renault and then McLaren to get his chances for the fight at the top. But that hasn’t worked out in his favour.
Mika Hakkinen, former Formula 1 champion with McLaren, opens up on his thoughts about Ricciardo’s troubling future. The two-time champion very openly did confess the chances for Ricciardo’s return to be very little as the sport changes a lot in a very less time.
Hakkinen sees no certainty for Ricciardo’s 2024 season as well though the Aussie plans to make an entry after a year’s break: “If Daniel decides to have one year off, from experience I know once you leave this sport normally you shouldn’t come back,” understands Hakkinen as per the Race.
Mika Hakkinen on the differences between his and Daniel Ricciardo’s exit
Mika Hakkinen had an odd exit from the sport at the end of 2001. The two-time champion won the title against Michael Schumacher in 1998 and Eddie Irvine in 1999 (as Schumacher’s leg broke at the British GP), he lost out to the German in 2000 and 2001. The domination Ferrari was bringing did led to the exit of Hakkinen to a ‘break’ that he never returned from.
But by that, Hakkinen was already a two-time world champion, which is definitely not the case for Ricciardo: “I think my position was a little bit different because I was already a two-time world champion, I’d achieved my goals,”
But it’s a verl real prospect that Ricciardo might never come back to the grid at all, as his performances haven’t been all that great: “Daniel has a different situation. His performance has been dropping, he’s not going flat-out there. So people are not sure with him if he’s quick enough. That could make it difficult having a year off and coming back because if you’re not quick enough,” Hakkinen explained.
Ricciardo did step on the podium with McLaren, winning the 2021 Monza GP. Other than that, Ricciardo has just been out of scope and has been thoroughly and comprehensively outclassed by his teammate, Lando Norris.
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Soham Raj Jain
(480 Articles Published)