In the last few seasons, Daniel Ricciardo seemed to be on his own journey, a search for a new home. And after a couple of years with Renault, Ricciardo seemed to have found his place at McLaren.

Despite his first season not being full of stellar, championship-level performances, Ricciardo did manage to put in a few ‘noteworthy’ performances. But even more important than that, and what probably is the biggest takeaway from his first season at McLaren is how the team embraced him, regardless of the situation.

This is something Ricciardo explained compared to his former team, Red Bull. He spoke about Helmut Marko and how his treatment made up his growth process quicker. “Helmut is a guy which, through my junior career, there was a lot of tough love, and I think that was really good for me because it made me grow up quicker,” he said.

But in McLaren’s case, the honey badger said, “Here, the first half of the season in particular, there was a lot of support and they weren’t trying to kick me down or put me down when I was already down, they were trying to bring me up.”

“I’m not saying I want to be cuddled all the time, but I think their way about dealing with it and going about it and not overwhelming me was really nice, and I feel that,” Ricciardo continued.

“I feel that with the team. There is a lot of family-style support.”

Daniel Ricciardo wants to finish his career at McLaren

The Australian described several reasons why his time at McLaren has been better than any of his other stints in the past. But the main reason he considers McLaren as the team where he’ll say farewell to F1 is because of the season he had in 2021, which he describes as, “maybe the most difficult year of my career.”

Ricciardo said, “So I’m also like, ‘If I can win [last year] then what does that tell for our journey to come?'”

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“I’m definitely excited, and I do want to be here, potentially till the end, yep.” 

Do you think the 2021 season was Daniel Ricciardo’s best?

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