Daniel Ricciardo addresses Red Bull split and teaming with Max Verstappen again
R💧icciardo returned this weekend at the F1 United States Grand P❀rix from injury, having returned to the grid full-time earlier this year with Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri.
His ultimate goal has always been🌊 a return to the top team, though, amid a crisis of confidence in Sergio Perez.
Ricciardo quit Red Bull to go to Renault as Verstappen’s 𒁏brilliance starting coming to the fore, and in the wake of a clash betw꧂een them in Baku in 2018.
“It would be different,” Ricciardo sa🔯id to Sky about teaming with Verstappen again.
“I think it’d beꦆ very different. Just from where🦄 we are both at in our careers.
“ I always stand by saying: ‘I don’t r🐻egret anything’.
“At the time, of course, with everything that was going on? That was💧 what I felt was the best situation for 💞me.
“Am I happy to 🦂be back? And am I happy to be back in that environment with the people that got me here? Absolutely!
“Things are different.”
Ricciardo opted to step away frﷺom F1 full-time after being axed by McLaren last year.
He spent time as Red Bull✃’s third drꦺiver earlier this year - predominantly featuring in the less rigorous marketing scheduling - before being called up by AlphaTauri to replace the underperforming Nyck de Vries.
Ricciardo explained how he is different after his break: “I’m just more mature. I also know this iඣsn’t a matter of life and death.&nb𓆉sp;
I put a lot into it but I’m also a little wiser.
“There’s a bit of a fear sometimes of retirement. You’ve had th🔯is one objective your whole life, you’ve woken up every day for the last 20 years to do something.
“So when that goes? Okay, what? Who am I?’
“Fortunately, I felt like I was really happy as well on the sideline🌠s.
“꧅Do I believe I can still win races? Absolutely. Will I be a world champion one day? I would love to say yes but I hoꦅnestly don’t know.
“I can’t say🅺 that ‘y🌠es, it’s definitely going to happen’.
“And if I ended up winni⛦ng enough races which lead to a world title, then h💧ell yeah!”
