After two disappointing years with McLaren, Ricciardo was replaced by 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri for F1 2023.

This left Ricciardo on the sidelines, ultimately returning t🅷o Red Bull as their third driver.

He would then make a sensational return with AlphaTauri - Red Bull’s sister team at the Hungarian Grand Prix - as a mid-season replacement for 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nyck de Vries.

Reflecting 🐟on the end of 2022 in Abu Dhabi, Ricciardo admitted that he did seriously think that was potentially his final outing in F1.

“Sitting here a year ago, I was like ‘could this be my last race?’”𒁏 Ricciardo said. “I don’t exaggerate when I say that. I r༒eally didn’t know. I honestly thought it was 50/50.

“So to have the year I’v𝐆e had and forget the hand. I just kind of feel a little bit reborn again. I feel re-energised and I’ve definitely got a second wind.”

Ricciardo raced in seven events in 2023 after an injury to his hand, sustained a🌳t the Dutch Grand Prix, ruled him out of five.

“If I didn’t race at all this year, if I had a whole 12 months off, I think that would have been no🦂 problem,” he added. “Because just t✨he power of time off for me was just really, really beneficial and it gave me so much.

“Fortunately, I did find enough in those six months. If you’d have asked me in January ‘okay, you’re going to jump in at AlphaTauri at Buꦬdapest? How do you feel?’ I would have said ‘well, I’m probably not ready, I need more time.’

“But then by that point, it just made a lot more sense. Driving the cars, it feels fun again, and even qualifying 14th or some💞thing, it was still just having fun.

“I really wanted to t🌱hink just having a bit of perspective with the time off. It’s not like my enjoyment in the sport should not be results based but it doesn’t just need to 🐼be winning every time.”

He will remain alongside Yuki Tsunoda in 2024.