Australian Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he used to be “a little bitter” that a world championship remained elusive, but he says a switch in mindset has put him “at peace” with the thought of never taking out a title.
While the Western Australian finished third in the world championship with Red Bull in 2014 and 2016, he’s failed since to contend with the front of the field consistently.
Ricciardo managed just ninth and fifth in 2019 and 2020 respectively with Renault, while he’s sitting eighth in the 2021 world championship with six races remaining in his first season with McLaren.
The 32-year-old enjoyed a rare win at Monza in September, as he beat McLaren teammate Lando Norris and Mercedes‘ Valtteri Bottas to the chequered flag for his first victory since the Monaco Grand Prix of 2018.
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Ricciardo said on the Beyond the Grid podcast this week that, although he still believed he was capable of winning a world championship and was still hungry to do so, he had found a new perspective.
“There was a time where I was a little bit bitter, like, ‘I should have had a title by now, this sucks. Why don’t I? Wrong place, wrong time’, or this or that,” Ricciardo said.
“But maybe that’s the growth in me or the maturity where I don’t think that anymore.
“I’m still here because I believe I can win a title, and I want to win a title.
“But I’m at peace with whatever happens.
“As long as I go out and leave it all on the track, I’ll get fulfilment.”
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Ricciardo has been outperformed this season by Norris, who’s 10 years younger than him.
As the grid gets set to race at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, Norris is sitting fourth on 145 points and Ricciardo eighth on 95.
But while this is Ricciardo’s first year behind the wheel of the MCL35, Norris had already spent a full season in that model of car before Ricciardo’s arrival.
Ricciardo has a major reason to be excited about the ability of the McLaren car given it’s now run by the all-powerful Mercedes engine.
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“Say I’m at McLaren for five years, and we don’t get a title, I don’t want to look back on the five years as a failure,” Ricciardo said.
“Because then it’s like, ‘okay, that’s five years of my life that I’m just flushing down the toilet’. Five years of your life is a lot of time.
“That’s maybe the mindset switch that I’ve made.
“Don’t get me wrong: it has not made me any softer or less driven or less motivated. But I want to enjoy my time here in the sport.
“The goal is to be world champion, and I think that is why I will wake up every morning with the desire to do this, but I don’t want that to dictate my whole happiness.
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“I’ve been doing this 10 years. I’m not world champion yet, so there’s no guarantee it will happen.
“I just don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket and then be miserable for the rest of my life because I haven’t done it.
“Winning in Monza was probably all I needed to give me all the happiness in 2021.
“That also proved that you can get so much from not just the world title.”
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