Daniel Ricciardo promised to “come out swinging” the following year and has strategies to outpace his competitors in Formula 1.
Admittedly, the Australian feels a lot more youthful than anyone else on the grid. After all, Ricciardo participated in just seven of the 22 races during the arduous campaign that the other drivers just finished.
As a reserve for Red Bull, he missed the first ten games until being called upon by sister team AlphaTauri following the dismissal of Nyck de Vries. However, the 34-year-old only participated in two races before suffering a broken left hand bone that needed surgery to fix.
He missed five more Grand Prix weekends as a result of that, so he has extra energy when everyone else is out of commission. And he intends to take full advantage of it as he approaches a year that could make or break his hopes of landing a Red Bull comeback.
Usually, by this time of year, I’m so over it that returning to Australia is all I can think about,” he remarked. We no longer race, of course. That’s alright. I’ll simply start my preseason early, get a little bit of an advantage over everyone, and emerge victorious the following year by using this extra energy that I have and others don’t.”
During his seven-race cameo, Ricciardo only managed to score once, finishing in an impressive seventh place in Mexico. Red Bull will be closely monitoring his performances and results the following year, so that will be the real test of what lies ahead in the last years of his Formula One career.
He has never hidden his wish to take back the position he voluntarily left behind five years ago, even though he was unable to achieve the kind of success he was hoping for at Renault and then McLaren. Additionally, Sergio Perez, who is in the final year of his contract and under pressure after experiencing setbacks this season, might present an opportunity.
