Daniel Ricciardo says he feels he’s still “pretty far” from retirement even as he continues to struggle to match the pace of McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
The Australian heads into Sunday’s French Grand Prix having finished in the points in just three of this season’s 11 races, with his 17 world championship points a fraction of the 64 scored by Norris.
Amid much speculation about his future, Ricciardo was forced to publicly address the issue after the Austrian Grand Prix, with the eight-time grand prix winner confirming he intends to see out the final year of his McLaren contract in 2023.
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Speaking to Autosport, Ricciardo said he never had any intention of quitting, even after races where he’s been off the pace.
“Long story short, no,” he said.
“Even if it’s a Q1 exit, the frustration is like, ‘this again,’ or ‘how am I out in Q1?’ For sure there is a frustration, and I’ve admitted sometimes that in a way, I hate the sport, because you just deal with these highs and lows so often.
“But I feel like the days that I also can find myself in a way hating it, I also love it, because the feeling that I get and what that does and how that ignites me, and I guess that feeling in my gut, it’s like, I actually love this.”
Ricciardo scored McLaren’s first win since 2012 at last year’s Italian Grand Prix, leading home Norris in a 1-2 finish, although that’s one of the few times he’s had the upper hand over his highly-rated teammate.
“Of course I would love to just be on the top all the time, whatever, but the feeling I get is still real, even through those lows,” Ricciardo said.
“That belief and everything that I get, as soon as the emotion and that wave of frustration blows over, give it 10 minutes, half an hour, whatever it is, I’m then like, once I reset, like yeah, I still want this.
“I still believe I can do it. The day I retire is the day that I lose that feeling, is the day that I lose that belief and will to want to keep doing it.
“I truly feel like I’m still pretty far from that.”
Rising American star Colton Herta recently tested a McLaren F1 car for the first time, amid mounting speculation the team had its eye on the 22-year-old as a potential Ricciardo replacement.
But the Australian said it was important that the team knew he was 100 per cent committed for the duration of his contract.
“There’s a lot of people in the factory. In all these race teams, there’s hundreds of people that work in the factory that don’t come trackside and don’t get to see everything, don’t get to see me on a race weekend as well, even if it’s the work I’m putting in or whatever,” he said.
“If they’re just reading some headlines on what’s Daniel’s future, is he going to move to another team, I wanted to remove any doubt for them as well.
“So I wanted to address them and say guys, I’m in this with you, and to draw a line under that.”
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