(Motorsports news) De Vries was fired after just 10 races of his debut Formula One season for failing to equal Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri. Red Bull then called up its third driver, Daniel Ricciardo, to take De Vries’ place beginning with next week’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
While Ricciardo is aware of the significant challenge he confronts at the struggling team that is now last in the constructors’ championship, he has no specific expectations for his first races back at AlphaTauri.
In an interview posted to the F1 YouTube page, Ricciardo remarked, “I’m excited about it – it’s a challenge for sure to jump in and try to hit the ground running.”
“However, I feel like I’ve been through so much in the past few years that I’m not really afraid of anything that’s going to come my way. “I understand that the car will have its limitations. Even if it doesn’t have as much grip as the Red Bull I drove a few days ago if it seems well-balanced, I can deal with it.
“They demand results and performances, but I don’t think it’s easy to explain what that is until I get in the vehicle. Is that a P8? A P14, perhaps? There won’t be any pressure, in my opinion, till the summer break. But I also do not anticipate a slow start. I want to get started right away and try to put what I’ve learnt during this time off to work.
After a brutal two-year tenure at McLaren, Ricciardo was unexpectedly called up just half a season into his break. And even though Helmut Marko’s phone call came considerably sooner than he had anticipated, the Australian claimed it did so at precisely the correct moment for him to have developed a yearning to go back.
Ricciardo stated, “I didn’t really need to think much about it. “I feel like I’m just going through it all again now that I’m back in this [Red Bull] family and these are the calls I used to get. “Therefore, it was obvious that I would say yes. ‘OK, it’s going to happen really soon’ was all that was being faced with in fact.
I’ve long been a member of the Red Bull family. And I am aware that these things are possible. Therefore, even though I was certain to take some time off this year, I had the thought that perhaps I might get a call in the back of my mind.
But despite confessing to “falling out of love” with Formula One toward the end of last year, Ricciardo’s motivation to make a comeback didn’t come back right away. Christian Horner, a Red Bull driver, claimed earlier this year that during the veteran Ricciardo’s initial simulations as a third driver, the team almost didn’t recognize him.
After a few sessions, Ricciardo said he “started feeling like myself again”. Returning to Red Bull and the welcome he received upon entering the team was “a little bit overwhelming, but in a good way,” he said.
“Once I completed a few sim sessions, I felt like myself once more. And that kind of got me back to Daniel, where I was ready to go again and fall back in love. Then, attendance at the Australian and Monaco grand prix further stoked the spark, and Ricciardo decided he wanted to be a part of the spectacle once more after attending the Super Bowl.
I think I started to regain some of those sensations around the time I went to the Super Bowl, being in a competitive situation once more, he continued. And I thought, “I would love to just be under the lights and just compete right now. This emotion hasn’t gone away yet. Thus, that was undoubtedly the turning point when everything began to change.
“Back in Melbourne, I wasn’t exactly gagging for air, but it was getting worse. I was watching qualifying in Monaco, and it was a thrilling one. And that’s when I really started to think, “Ah, it would be wonderful to be in a car around here.
