F1: Daniel Ricciardo speaks on his amazing comeback

After securing a spectacular F1 comeback with AlphaTauri as of the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, a move that will end his half-year hiatus from the sport, Daniel Ricciardo says he is eager to get started and ready to “have fun.”

Ricciardo chose to accept a reserve position at his former team Red Bull for 2023 after parting ways with McLaren at the end of 2022. His duties there have included simulator work and getting a taste of the RB19 during a recent Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone, but he will now return to full-time competition in place of Nyck de Vries, who was fired from AlphaTauri.

Daniel Ricciardo returns to F1

For the 34-year-old Australian, who made his F1 debut with Hispania Racing in the middle of the 2011 season before moving on to Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) and then Red Bull, where he won seven of his eight Grand Prix races, it is a full-circle moment.

In an exclusive interview with F1’s Lawrence Barretto, Ricciardo discussed his comeback, how spending more time with the Red Bull clan helped him reclaim his “normal Daniel,” and the future prospects for AlphaTauri.

Given the “unpredictable” nature of Formula 1, Ricciardo acknowledged that he kept the possibility of a comeback in the back of his mind and that he remained prepared “at all times” to ensure he could seize it.

The decision to join AlphaTauri

Talking about his decision to join AlphaTauri he said, “I didn’t really need to think much about it. I think, as well, being back in this family, I feel so much… I would say there’s certainly some familiarity, but I also feel at home, I feel like I’m kind of just going through it all again. These were the calls I used to get and these were the moments they used to kind of throw in front of us. There was no question that I was going to say yes, it was just I guess the reality of, ‘OK, it’s going to happen pretty soon’.”