Daniel Ricciardo admits he would consider a one-year F1 sabbatical ‘if it made sense’ after announcing McLaren exit
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Updated 25/08/2022 at 20:06 GMT
Shortly after announcing he’d be leaving McLaren at the end of the F1 season, Daniel Ricciardo has hinted at a possible one-year sabbatical from the sport. Ricciardo admitted if it “made sense” he would consider a break. “If it means taking that time off to reset and re-evaluate, if that's the right thing to do, then I'm willing to,” he said in a recent interview.
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Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he’s willing to take a one-year sabbatical from F1 if it’s the “right thing to do”.
The comments came shortly after he announced he will be parting ways with McLaren at the end of the current F1 season, and despite insisting his priority is to remain in the sport, has refused to rule out a break.
Ricciardo and McLaren mutually agreed to terminate the Australian’s contract a year early after an underwhelming spell alongside teammate Lando Norris, who largely outperformed his colleague.
The 33-year-old expressed disappointment at the way things turned out at McLaren, but praised the way he and the team worked hard to find answers.
“The outcome wasn't desired, as a collective we didn’t really get it right, we put in a lot of effort and tried to get through it and understand things with the car and with myself gelling with it, getting the maximum out of it, but there were too many weekends that was obviously just a bit of a struggle, so that was how the decision came about,” he explained.
“It's not the nicest feeling, but I can look back on it and I can hold my head high in terms of applying myself and trying to make it work and putting everything in, sometimes you just have to accept, ok I tried and it didn’t necessarily work out.
“But from that point of view I don’t look back in terms of “yeah, I was slacking off and that’s why I earned this or whatever,” it’s just one of those things.
“I’m proud of the way we tried to make it happen and persist through it, but some things maybe you say they’re not meant to be.”
On his future, Ricciardo backed himself to overcome his poor run of form, but revealed a break from the sport could be on the cards if the right opportunity didn’t present itself next season.
“I still love the sport, I think through all of this, let's call it adversity, I haven't lost that confidence in myself.
“For sure we’ve had some tough weekends and you can't help but show emotion sometimes, but I still love it and I still want to do it competitively, I want to do it in the right place, so I never said I want to be a driver just to make up the numbers.
“If I'm here I want to be here for a purpose, so i don't know what that means for the future but of course if it's the right opportunity it's where I want to be.
“If it made sense (a one-year sabbatical), yes, if it made sense. It's the only racing I'm interested in at this stage in my career, like F1 is what I love, its where I see myself if I'm doing any racing.
“But its like I said, let's say the stars don't align and it doesn't make perfect sense next year and it means taking that time off to reset and re-evaluate, then if that's the right thing to do then I'm willing to.”
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Ricciardo sits 57 points behind teammate Norris in the drivers’ standings, and 239 points off of leader - and former Red Bull teammate - Max Verstappen.
Another old Red Bull teammate of Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, labelled his former colleagues' situation as “difficult,” and that McLaren “failed to extract” his potential.
“I think it’s a very, very difficult situation to be in,” Vettel said. “I had the pleasure to race against him and the not-so-pleasurable side of getting beaten by him years ago.
“I don’t know the details, but I guess McLaren failed to extract the potential that he has.
“I’m sure that ultimately the talent he has and the qualities he has will shine through,” he added.
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