"Racing and training are my priorities right now": Daniel Ricciardo opens up on his mindset when he returned to F1 with AlphaTauri

Daniel Ricciardo believes that training and racing are his primary focus at the moment and everything else is secondary. Speaking to The Age newspaper, the Australian reckoned he wants to get back to his old version.

Receiving a lot of negative flack in the public domain for his subpar performance in Saudi Arabia, Daniel Ricciardo is looking forward to his home race in Melbourne. The 34-year-old was beaten by half a second by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying and couldn’t finish higher than 16th in the race.

A 41-second pitstop cost him places and he was unable to unleash the potential of his car. The 2023 Mexican GP performance reflected the old version of the former Red Bull driver, a version he wishes to return to in terms of performance and physique.

Speaking to the Australian newspaper The Age, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“I wanted to be able to fall back in love with training again, but to train and to train well you need to get some time back in your life to do that properly. You can’t do a million other things because you have no window to train, and then maybe you’re not as strong or as healthy or as fresh as you should be, and it spirals. I want to get that feeling back again, to bring out the old me. Racing and training are my priorities right now, and all of the other stuff is secondary.”

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Daniel Ricciardo admits to eliminating other priorities in his life to focus on racing

Daniel Ricciardo, who lost his McLaren drive in 2022, returned to Red Bull Racing in 2023 to rebuild his competitive form.

Having succeeded with the Milton Keynes camp in the past, the Aussie started to find his old mojo for driving in familiar surroundings which earned him a seat with AlphaTauri which is now rebranded as RB.

He believes that with McLaren, there was a feeling of being done with the season. Time away from the sport made him find his love for racing again, as he has admitted several times since his return.

Speaking to the Australian newspaper The Age, Daniel Ricciardo believes that now he is back to loving the sport again and has rediscovered his yearning to race and compete.

Ricciardo, who has been content with his time with Red Bull, has decided to prioritize his personal life and has completed the most extensive winter break training for the 2024 season.

Explaining his mindset at the moment in the 2024 season, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“Coming back last year, I found that I wasn’t thinking about anything else because I was truly happy doing what I was doing. I was in love with the sport again, with driving and competing. In 2022, I struggled with that and just wanted it to be over. It’s had a long-lasting impact. I got my energy and excitement back by pushing a few things to the side, cutting out a lot of clutter.”

“I didn’t need to eat a heap of food or take time off over summer – it’s probably the most training I’ve done in December in my life. Maybe it’s my age these days, but I just don’t have the desire to completely let go anymore. Because you definitely don’t bounce back as quickly at 34 as you do 24.”

After the Saudi Arabian GP, Daniel Ricciardo told Sportskeeda that he was past the dejected mindset he had when he was with McLaren. RB is supposed to have found several issues with his car in Jeddah as admitted by Laurent Mekies and the Perth-born driver himself.

The pressure on him to deliver against a younger teammate is high as both make a bid for the 2025 Red Bull seat. Currently, RB is yet to score their first points in 2024 and the Honey Badger is hungry to score his first points on home ground in Melbourne.

While skeptics and critics reckon he is past his prime, the multiple Grand Prix winner is determined to prove a point otherwise, which is reflected in his enthusiasm going into 2024.