Daniel Ricciardo says 'falling back in love' with Formula 1 was key to his return at AlphaTauri

Daniel Ricciardo says his time away from Formula 1 has helped him rediscover his love for the sport that had waned during two difficult seasons at McLaren. Such were his struggles at the Woking-based outfit that the Australian had his contract terminated early, leaving him without a seat on the grid for 2023 and with his F1 future hanging in the balance.

Ad At his lowest ebb, the typically bubbly Ricciardo looked a shell of his former self, both on and off the track. However, after “falling back in love” with the sport, Ricciardo is set to make a sensational return at the Hungarian Grand Prix after replacing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.

Hungarian Grand Prix'I'm stoked to be back on track' — Ricciardo to replace De Vries at AlphaTauri immediately11/07/2023 AT 15:09 “Falling out of love with it [F1] took a hit on my confidence and of course if you're competing in a sport where you're trying to be the best at something, the best in the world at something, obviously you need full confidence and belief,” Ricciardo said in an interview on F1's YouTube channel. “When that starts to diminish a bit, your enjoyment drops a bit as well.

There's a lot of factors. Getting back to Red Bull, just the reception I had walking back into that team was in a positive way a little bit overwhelming.

“Getting back on the sim, I was a bit unsure how it was going to go, if the car would feel like it used to, if I was going to be like — for the lack of better words — 'the old me'. “But once I'd done a few sim sessions and started feeling like myself again it brought me back to normal Daniel where I was falling back in love and ready to go again.” Gasly 'extremely confused' how Stroll escaped punishment for Silverstone overtake Verstappen continues