Daniel Ricciardo says a discussion with two-time champion Fernando Alonso convinced him that a mid-career break from the sport would help revive his career.
Ricciardo has returned from an almost eight-month stint on the sidelines after being sacked by McLaren last year and choosing not to immediately pursue a seat among the backmarkers.
Instead the eight-time race winner joined Red Bull Racing as a reserve driver, a role that allowed him to create some distance between himself and the sport’s hectic day-to-day routine while also staying connected to the paddock.
The reserve role put him in the ideal position to capitalise on AlphaTauri’s sacking of Nyck de Vries after just 10 races, which paved the way for his early comeback at the weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo had intended to take the full 12 months off before seeking a return in 2024, but the West Australian confirmed his truncated break had been sufficient for him to rediscover his hunger to compete at the highest level.
“I thought I was going to get 12 months. In the end it was only about six or seven or whatever,” he said in Budapest. “Fortunately it was enough. I felt like I had enough time to fall back in love.
“I just feel a bit lighter and a bit more bubbly, kind of like myself.
“And just the driving — I was driving a bit more with a smile. It was very, very good for me.
“Maybe not everyone needs it, but for me I felt like it was really good at that time of my career.”
While breaking back into F1 after taking leave from the sport is generally difficult, the Aussie is one of several drivers to have successfully made a comeback in recent seasons.
Aston Martin spearhead Alonso is the most notable and offers the most significant parallel, having hung up his F1 helmet after a demoralising stint at McLaren to spend two years satisfying his competitive urges in the World Endurance Championship, the Dakar Rally and the Indianapolis 500.
The Spaniard returned reinvigorated in 2021 and has spent much of this season in podium contention.
Alonso’s story has been more than just an inspiration for Ricciardo; it was a discussion with the two-time champion that had planted the first seed that a break from Formula 1 could be beneficial in the long run.
“I remember having a conversation with Fernando maybe two years ago now,” he said, per Racer. “I wasn’t thinking of taking a break.
“But we were just having a chat, I think on a flight somewhere, and he said the break for him was one of the best things he ever did.
“That kind of got me thinking maybe, if I ever feel I need it, not to be too scared of it.
“Then I think seeing the year he’s had, that also filled me with some confidence.
“Even if [my break] wasn’t the year I expected, I certainly just kind of reset myself and I feel energised again.”
Alonso’s comeback preceded the return of Alex Albon, the former Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing driver who had been forced into a season on the sidelines after a disappointing 2020 campaign alongside Max Verstappen.
The Thai driver had retained his place in the Red Bull program and spent 2021 as the Red Bull Racing reserve driver before negotiating a place at Williams, where he’s now the team leader.
While Albon wasn’t ready to take a forced break from Formula 1 just two years into his career, upon reflection he thinks he benefited from having time to reflect on his difficult start to life in the sport.
“I had a year out, he’s had a little bit less, but I really do think that year helped me,” he said.
“When you’re in the circus and things aren’t going well and you’re just going race to race to race, you’re not really able to reflect and to understand really what’s going on. You just feel like you’re in the washing machine a little bit.
“And having that time, it’s important to be able to reflect and to improve. But it’s also just purely good in the sense that you get time away and you can fully reset mentally.
“The reset is very important. You start to lose a bit of confidence, and having time away I think gets rid of the demons in some respects.
“I valued my time in DTM because, [though] it was actually driving something a little bit different, it gave me confidence in a different kind of way. I was still driving a racing car, so you still needed to be confident, and driving that car kind of did that to me.”
“Just seeing Daniel and seeing the buzz he has, I think that’s happened to him as well.”
Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg have also made successful F1 comebacks after one and three years out respectively, and both have spoken about the benefit of separating from the sport.
“I’m just very relaxed about everything. I’m in a different place, that’s for sure,” Magnussen told The Race last season.
“I don’t really carry all that expectation. I just love what I do, and I’m excited to see what the future will bring.”
Hülkenberg said his three years on the sidelines — punctuated by four stand-in drives across 2020 and 2022 — brought him a new perspective.
“Once you step away, you also develop a different understanding and new perspectives on how things went, what you’ve done,” he told Autosport. “You reflect on many things and process the whole thing.
“Even a winter break — you think three months is a lot, it’s actually not, because you’re still connected, you still do work.
“The time properly away has I think helped me a lot.”
