Daniel Ricciardo makes F1 burnout admission chasing Red Bull ‘fairytale’ with Max Verstappen

Daniel Ricciardo believes that, on reflection, he knew he had reached career burnout at the point where he was still chasing the “fairytale” of a Red Bull return.

Ricciardo returned to Formula 1 with Racing Bulls (nee AlphaTauri) team in 2023 and was aiming for a reunion alongside Max Verstappen, but the dream came to an end when Red Bull dropped him in favour of Liam Lawson.

Daniel Ricciardo reflects on Red Bull return dream and F1 burnout

Ricciardo had carved out a reputation as a potential champion-in-waiting during his years at Red Bull Racing between 2014 and 2018, having dismantled four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel during their season together in 2014.

Taking over as the team’s lead driver in ’15 as Vettel moved on for a new career challenge at Ferrari, Ricciardo continued to prove himself capable of challenging the dominant Mercedes and Ferrari cars over the next few seasons.

But it was the promotion of Max Verstappen from the then-Toro Rosso team in mid-2016 that began to change the narrative, as the young Dutch driver quickly proved a capable match for Ricciardo and, by 2018, the Australian had his eyes on a fresh start himself.

Moving to Renault, Ricciardo continued to prove himself highly competitive across the next two seasons, before he opted for what was then an, at best, sideways move, as he vacated his seat for McLaren.

It was at the Woking-based squad that Ricciardo’s form became sporadic and, despite a hugely popular win at Monza in late 2021, McLaren opted to buy him out of the third year of his contract, sidelining him for 2023.

Faced with a potential end to his F1 career, the rebuild began later that year when Red Bull plumped to give him a chance again by picking him to replace Nyck de Vries at the then-AlphaTauri squad.

After a wrist injury waylaid him for a handful of races, giving Liam Lawson the chance to deputise and impress, Ricciardo secured his seat on a full-time basis for 2024, but was aware of the threat of the Kiwi as Red Bull knew it was in danger of losing Lawson to a rival team.

With Ricciardo struggling for pace and consistency, the axe fell after the Singapore Grand Prix: Ricciardo was out again, with Lawson given the full-time promotion.

This time, there was no way back and, having had the opportunity to try regaining the position alongside Verstappen that he had so willingly walked away from six years previously, Ricciardo went to ground and has, largely, avoided the spotlight ever since.

However, two years on from his final F1 race, Ricciardo reappeared for a cathartic and lengthy chat with Tom Clarkson on the Beyond the Grid podcast in which he opened up on his feelings about that period of his career, including revealing that he had felt “humiliation” about how his competitiveness had slipped away.

Explaining that, in retrospect, he now feels gratitude that Red Bull had ripped the band-aid off by forcing him off the grid, Ricciardo went into the full extent of how his self-belief had wavered.

“In terms of, I was still hungry and wanting to try to, I guess, prove something, also mainly to myself,” he said.

“But yeah, there were moments where I was done, and I think also in denial, and that protective shield that we may put up at times: ‘No, I can do this, I’m strong, I’ll get through it, and I’m good enough, and blah blah blah’.

“But yeah, there were definitely times that I was like, ‘I don’t love this anymore. I don’t really want to be here’, and it’s like, ‘Okay, sleep it off, sleep it off. You’ll get there, and you’ll be fine’.

“Then maybe you have one good race or one moment, you’re like, ‘Yeah, I got the fire back’.

“I still wanted the fairy tale, of course. I wanted to get back with Red Bull Racing and all of that. I would have loved to have obviously been teammates with Max again and tried to obviously race at the front again.

“But I knew, deep down, I was getting probably more burnt out by it all, because of a lot of factors, but it wasn’t as easy for me anymore to perform and compete at the level that I once did.

“You see some guys that are still doing it at a high level that are older than me, so it’s different for everyone. But I think there was just a lot of pain process, a lot of things that just were happening and had happened over the years that I think had just built up, and it was very hard for me to probably shut all that out and do it.”

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With Ricciardo having made speed and aggression look so simple during his Red Bull and Renault days, the Australian said an example of how simple it can be is currently on display from the 20-year-old Kimi Antonelli.

With Antonelli closing in on his maiden title in just his second season, Ricciardo said that youth and inexperience can, in itself, be a net positive in some ways.

“I got asked just by a friend about Kimi Antonelli the other day, and I said that ignorance is a superpower,” he said.

“Being young is what I’m really trying to say. Not trying to be mean to him at all, but being young is a superpower, and being ignorant and not being so exposed to the world and things like that.

“I remember my first year at Red Bull Racing, you’re naive, you’re young, you’re ignorant. I don’t know. Everything’s easy, and it comes easy, and it’s just ‘Oh wow, I’m winning. Cool, I’ll just keep winning because I’m the best’.

“I don’t mean to compare myself to him or anything, but the power of being young in some situations where this sport and the world can be very intense, and over the years, you’re just going to accumulate baggage.

“Right now, I think he’s at that sweet spot where he’s obviously very talented, very fast, but he hasn’t yet really acquired any baggage.

“So it’s like ‘Let’s just go and race’, and there’s nothing really else going on up there, which is a superpower.

“That became a lot harder for me as years went on, and I think… even obviously the decision in 2018 to move on from Red Bull, these things, you obviously question them.

“As years go on, and it’s like, I hadn’t really found success, or maybe how I’d pictured it to go. These things keep popping up… was that decision right?

“‘Okay, now I’ve done this. Is that right?’ An accumulation of many things. By the end, it was just that I had to dig very deep to find something that before it was just easy.

“Like I didn’t really have to think; it was just there.”

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