Daniel Ricciardo welcomes F1 break after tough six months of underwhelming results

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo admits the Formula 1 summer break came at the right time following his 15th place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix, after a time penalty for an infringement with Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.

Ricciardo's first half of the F1 season has not been ideal, with him struggling with his car and being mostly outpaced by his teammate Lando Norris.

Despite slight improvements in his recent showing, Ricciardo said he needs the summer break to reset and come back fresh and ready to pick up more points and improve on his 12th place on the Drivers' standings.

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Tough first half

"I'm happy to have a break. It's not the six months I wanted," Ricciardo said. "I need it. More so because it hasn't been a good six months. But even if the season was going awesome, I think a break is still nice. Just to get away… F1 these days is intense. Even the hotels, they're full of people.

"Weekends are so full on that I think just getting away from the circus for a few weeks is going to be really nice," Ricciardo said.

The Australian said he planned to switch off completely on vacation then, after a short time, would have the racing hunger back again.

"Switching off normally gives me a natural reset," said Ricciardo.

"I imagine like 10 days, two weeks into the break, I would have kind of got the holiday out of my system and then I'll build that hunger back again. I'll naturally think about it (bouncing back in F1) after getting time off. That's normally how it works for me.

"I'll go out, be with friends, drink some beers, have fun. Then I'll get to the point where I start to feel… not guilty, but just like, 'Alright, it's time