Red Bull engineers were tasked with correcting errors that Ricciardo made upon his return to the team as their third driver at the sta🍸rt of this year.

Ricciardo had been axed from McLaren after 𝄹two drab seasons, and his driving ability was swiftly earmarked for improvement by Horner when he returned.

“I🎀 think bad habitsಞ can just come in the form of a lack of confidence,” Ricciardo told the  podcast. 

“It was the end of last ye𝓀ar. Once the season was done, I jumped on ﷽the sim, I guess it was sometime in December before I went home for Christmas.

“Don't get me wrong, I was also nervous because I'm stepping back into an environment that, I knew Christian was very open doors, 🍌but I didn't know how other people at Red Bull felt about m🐈e coming back into the family, into the team, so I was also a little bit nervous with that.”

Ricciardo had quit Red Bull five years ago to take up an opp♐ortunity at Renault but was rescued from the F1 scrapheap by his old team, who gave him a third driverജ role for 2023.

He admitted his nerves stemmed from how he exited Red Bull in 2018: “Yeah. 👍Obviouslꦜy, there was me telling them that I was leaving. That's going to have its effect. 

“But I think in t꧃hat second half of the season, I think we all got over it as best as we could. 

“It didn't end sour or bad, but I understand som𒁃e people can be hurt or confused by it.&nb🌊sp;

“I did have a contract available to me 🧜so it's not like the team never offered me♔ something. 

“They d⛦id, so me turning that down and going somewhere elsꦐe, I understand that.

“And also, because I'm not coming off a high, I'm obviously coming off a pretty low season.ꦗ 

“I'm walking into the team that's won the championship. So are people going to be like ‘who's this washed up kid💝?’ 

“Or are they going to be happy to see me back and happy to try and like resurrect me 𝓰a little bit?”

Ricciardo was com🎐prehensively outperformed by𓂃 teammate Lando Norris in 2022.

McLaren opted to pay off the final year of his deal, to💙 🐈replace him with rookie Oscar Piastri.

“My confidence,🎶 I lost that,” Ricc🐬iardo admitted. “Where did that go? 

“It's funny, I look now and I'm not a coach to anyone, but I feel I could probably look, even in other sports, and maybe I could just look atꦜ the treಞnd of a certain athlete and be like, ‘oh, that person needs time out.’

“I was just a bꦉit burnt out and I think obviously not madly in love with it. 

“I think that’s obviously a big tell-tale sign because it's the reason we all really get into it, you know, passion comes first.
“I🧸 think the confidence was another thing. I think when I did my first simulator day at Red Bull, I realised, and the people there realised it. That made me realise I'm not really my true self.”

Ricciardo’s fortunes changed when a test driving the Red Bull gave the team confidence to put him into an AlphaTauri full-time midway through the season, at the ൲expense of Nyck de Vries.

And despite an injury which cost him a few races and gave Liam Lawson a chance to iᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmpress, Ricciardo will reꦗtain his AlphaTauri drive in 2024 and has genuine hope of returning to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen in 2025.