After being dropped by the McLaren F1 Team for 2023, Daniel Ricciardo made it absolutely clear that he was not interested in potential opportunities with teams such as Haas F1 Team and Williams Racing lower down the grid.
Instead, he chose to spend a year as a third driver for Oracle Red Bull Racing, giving him time to reflect and find new motivation ahead of a hoped-for return to racing in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2024.
Alexander Albon has spoken up and said that he understands why Riccardo felt that time away from racing would be beneficial after spending a year on the sidelines himself in 2021 before joining Williams last season and impressing. The Thai driver lost his drive at Red Bull after the 2020 season and spend the following year as reserve driver as well as racing a partial season in the DTM Series before making a full-time return to Formula 1 last year.
Albon spoke on how he sympathies with Ricciardo’s situation when speaking to Motorsport.com.
“I was in a slightly different position, I felt like I was hungry maybe a week after I left, or got taken out.
“But I can see what he means. When you have bad years in F1, and I can talk about my experience in 2020, it drains you massively, the noise in the paddock and of course, more than anything, your own performances – we’re born to be competitive and hungry for it.
“That’s what we live on. It’s all about performance. It’s all about doing a good job. So yeah, it’s very heavy, and I think it took me a couple of weeks to kind of get through the emotional impact of missing out on a seat.
“But because I was young, I think I kind of felt like it was never over. And I knew I could have a chance back. And I think it’s possibly what also Mick [Schumacher] is feeling right now, is that sense of, ‘OK, I feel like I’ve got much more to prove, and I’ll be back,’ basically.”
