01/11/2022
NEWS STORY
"I can confidently say that I won't be on the grid behind a wheel," says Daniel Ricciardo following impressive performance in Mexico.
Just seven days after the Australian appeared to be at his lowest ebb, the Mexico City race offered Daniel Ricciardo the opportunity to display some of that old magic.
In the early stages of the race it looked as though he was destined for another anonymous afternoon, battling with Guanyu Zhou well outside the points.
However, in a brave strategic call he decided to extend his opening stint, thereby allowing him to switch to softs when most of his rivals were struggling on their hards or mediums that were between 10 - 15 laps older.
Though he incurred a 10s penalty for a reckless move on Yuki Tsunoda, having battled his way to seventh, his best finish since Singapore, he was able to build enough of a lead over Esteban Ocon to keep the position.
With Fernando Alonso retiring due to an engine issue, Russell's 6 points, combined with Lando Norris' 2 for finishing ninth, enable McLaren to maintain a 7 point gap to championship rivals Alpine.
Though a determined performance, and superb strategic call, confirmed that the magic is still there, speaking at race end, Ricciardo admitted that he won't be on the grid in 2023, certainly not as a race driver.
"I can confidently say that I won't be on the grid behind a wheel," he told Sky Sports, "but I still want to be in the sport.
"I want to be working with a team," he continued, "with the ambition to be back on the grid in 2024.
"It's honestly where my head is at as well," he added. "I feel like a bit of time away from a race seat will do me good, and then try to rebuild on something for 2024. Let's say, I'm not done, but it'll look a bit different."
While there has been talk of a role as a TV pundit, the Australian having been linked with American broadcaster ESPN, his interaction with Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff during the talk with Sky - the Austrian having been spotted wearing a sweater from Ricciardo's clothing range over the weekend - reinforces suggestions that a reserve role with the German team could be on the cards.
In the meantime however, Ricciardo believes a year out of the hot seat will be a "blessing in disguise".
"No doubt, the last two years have been quite hard, especially when you put a lot in and when it doesn't come back, it can get you down," he admitted. "I think as well, I know the value of, even a summer break, stepping away gives you a different perspective. The way the seasons are, it's pretty relentless. You don't really get a chance to rebuild. Everyone is different, but I truly believe that's a blessing in disguise. By doing less, I'll achieve more."
Referring to the race, he said: "I still know I can deliver. It's hard when you can't do it week-in, week-out, and it's a little bit like Vettel those last few races; he did phenomenal races and then people are questioning ‘is it time to retire?'
"I think all of us can still do it on our day. Obviously it's just the consistency, for whatever reason, but I still love it and still want to get to the front."
Asked about the clash with Tsunoda, he said: "Now I've seen a few replays, I'll take more of the responsibility but certainly I don't feel it's 100 to zero in terms of my fault.
"I didn't lock, I stayed on the apex," he insisted. "The truth is, I didn't actually plan or want to overtake him there... of course, I want to overtake him, but I wasn't set into that corner to out-brake and overtake him.
"All the grip's on the inside of that corner, it's very dusty, so I thought I could just stay there, keep him a bit on the dirty line, I'll get a better exit.
"We probably needed to give each other 20, 30 more centimetres and we were fine, probably not even that," he admitted. "So I wish it didn't happen, and I'm sorry that it happened, but I think 10 seconds was more than enough."
Despite being on those softs, while Ocon was on hards that were 11 laps older, in the final laps Ricciardo was worried that he wouldn't be able to maintain the needed 10s gap to the Frenchman, especially when George Russell was preparing to lap his McLaren.
"I was pretty nervous because George was so close to getting a blue flag for me, and I knew I would lose a couple of seconds with that. That would have dropped me back into Ocon, so I was pushing like hell just to try and hold that two-second gap.
"Then, when I heard he pitted for fastest (lap), I was like, he probably doesn't think it or know it, but I'll buy him a beer anyways!"
Told that his performance had earned him 'driver of the day', the Australian gave one of his famous grins and said: "I guess better late than never!"
Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City here.