Ricciardo Thought Last Years Abu Dhabi Race Might Have Been His Last In F1 Ever

Saturday, 23 December 2023 at 01:00

Daniel Ricciardo opened up about his thoughts after the last race of the 2022 season when he knew he did not have a team to race for in 2023.

Daniel Ricciardo found himself a seat in AlphaTauri in the middle of the 2023 season after a super successful Pirelli tire test at Silverstone with Red Bull Racing.

However, one lucky event was replaced by one unlucky event. Just after two races with his new team, Ricciardo suffered an injury that put him out of an F1 seat for the next five races.

As quoted by f1i.com, the honey Badger stated after the final race of the season: "I wish this never happened because it was uncomfortable and painful and whatever."

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On the other hand, Ricciardo looked at the positive side as he acknowledged his future was very uncertain at the end of the season 2022.

It is not common for F1 drivers to find their way back to the grid, mainly after being kicked out by a team; however, the 34-year-old managed to do it.

“But now that it's obviously done, I still look back on this year as a positive, because sitting here [in Abu Dhabi] a year ago, I was like, 'Could this be my last race?'"

The Aussie driver didn't initially want to join a team competing at the back of the grid, and other teams had already contracted drivers and couldn't offer him a seat at the end of 2022. He added:

“Genuinely, I don't exaggerate when I say that, I really didn't know; I honestly thought it was 50/50. So to kind of have the year I've had – forget the hand, I just kind of feel a little bit… reborn again is kind of the right word."

The AlphaTauri driver not only returned to F1, he showed an outstanding performance during the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix, where he qualified fourth and finished seventh in an AlphaTauri scoring the team's best result of the season.