Red Bull engineers were tasked with correcting errors that Ricciardo made upon his return to the team as their third driver at t🌄he start of thไis year.

Ricciardo had been axed from McLa❀ren after two drab seasons, and his driving ability was swiftly e👍armarked for improvement by Horner when he returned.

“I෴ think bad habits can just come in thജe form of a lack of confidence,” Ricciardo told the  podcast. 

“It was the end of last year. Once th💮e season was done, I jumped on the sim, I guess it w♎as sometime in December before I went home for Christmas.

“Don't get me wrong, I was also nervous because I'm💎 stepping back into an environm𒊎ent that, I knew Christian was very open doors, but I didn't know how other people at Red Bull felt about me coming back into the family, into the team, so I was also a little bit nervous with that.”

Ricciardo haꦅd quit Red Bull five years ago to take up an opportunity at Renault but was rescued f🎐rom the F1 scrapheap by his old team, who gave him a third driver role for 2023.

He admitted his nerv🅺es stemmed from how he exited Red Bull in 2018: “Yeah. Obviously, there was me telling them that I was leaving. That's going to have its effect. 

“But I think in that second half of the season🍨, I think we all got over it as best as we could. 

“It didn't end sour or bad, but I understand some people ✨can be hurt𝄹 or confused by it. 

“I did have a contract available to me s💮o it's not like the team𝓀 never offered me something. 

“They did, so me turning that down and going somewhere else, I understand tha𝕴t.

“And also, because I'm not coming off a high,🧔 I'm obviously 🅰coming off a pretty low season. 

“🌜I'm walking into the team that's won the champions🍒hip. So are people going to be like ‘who's this washed up kid?’ 

“Or are they going to be happy to see me back and🌞 happy to try and like resurrect me a little bit?”

Ricciardo was c🌸ompཧrehensively outperformed by teammate Lando Norris in 2022.

McLaren opted to pay off the f꧂inal year of his deal, to replace him with rookie Oscar Piastri.

“My confidence, I lost that,” Ricciardo ad♔mitted. “Wh𒉰ere did that go? 

“It's funny, I look now and I'm not a coach to anyone, but I feel I could probably loo🍌k, even in other sports, and maybe I could just look at the trend of a certain athlete a♒nd be like, ‘oh, that person needs time out.’

“I was just a bit burnt out and I think obviously♋ not madly in love with it. 

“I think that’s obviously a big tell-tale sign because it's the reason we all really get into it, you know, passion comes first.
“I think the confidence was another thing. I think when I did my first simulator day at Red Bull, I realised, and the people there realised it. That made💧 me realise I'm not really my true self.”

Ricciardo’s fortunes changed when a test driving the Red Bull gave the team﷽ confidence to put 🤡him into an AlphaTauri full-time midway through the season, at the expense of Nyck de Vries.

And despite an injury which cost him a few rac🌱es and gave Liam Lawson a chance to impress, Ricciardo will retain his AlphaTauri drive in 2024 and has genuine hope of returning to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen in 2025.