“I think 12 months ago a lot of the rumours were normally negative,” the 34-year-old Australian said in Abu Dhabi.
In fact, Ricciardo left McLaren for poor performances, his career only revived thanks to Red Bull, who brought him back to the grid mid-season in 2023 to upgrade hapless rookie Nyck de Vries within the Alpha Tauri junior team.
His return to F1 has been championed by Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner, leading to apparent rumours that Ricciardo would be chosen to succeed Sergio Perez at the premier team.
“Daniel is a great guy who was very badly advised earlier in his career,” Horner said recently.
“Everybody f***s up at some point and I think he recognised that he made a mistake.”
Rumours linking the Australian to Max Verstappen’s teammate have Ricciardo smiling.
“Whether it’s a rumor or not, 12 or 18 months ago I never imagined that one day I would be able to return to Red Bull,” he explained.
Red Bull bosses, adding Horner and Dr Helmut Marko, have said there is no fact to the rumours that Sergio Perez’s contract for 2024 is likely not to be fulfilled.
“Even though it’s just a rumour, I didn’t think such a rumour could exist, that’s why it makes me smile,” Ricciardo admitted.
“I don’t see it as a tension at all,” he added. “It just gives me a lot of courage to know that, through the ups and downs, if you stay on the direct, narrow path, crazy things can be done. “happen. “
And he made it clear that if the rumors ever turned out to be true, he’d be delighted.
“I said it would be a fairy tale to end my career as a Red Bull driver, but I use the word fairy tale because I know that in fact it’s not guaranteed.
For now, he is all signed up to stay at Alpha Tauri next year with current teammate Yuki Tsunoda – a decision made by the Red Bull camp whilst Ricciardo was recovering from his recent broken hand.
“I’m very pleased to have a job next year and I’m very pleased that they signed me while I was crying for my hand on the bench,” Ricciardo smiled.
“At the end of the day, I’m just happy to be back in the Red Bull family and even though it’s not the big team, I’m just in a really good place here.”