Daniel Ricciardo Snubbed Mercedes Opportunity For Red Bull Homecoming For Emotional Reasons

This past season brought a bit of turmoil for McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. After months of speculation about where Daniel Ricciardo would end up, the Australian has finally decided to return to his old team, Red Bull. Daniel terminated his contract on a mutual basis with the Woking-based team. Furthermore, he opens up about what his return to Red Bull means to him.

The Honey Badger is one of the few drivers making their way out of the grid. He along with Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi will not be driving an F1 car next year. However, time is against the 33-year-old and he will hope to be back on the grid as quickly as possible.

Speaking of his return to Red Bull, Ricciardo compared it to returning to “Mum and Dad”. The Milon-Keynes team will offer the Australian the warmth and familiarity he’s been desperately seeking to restore his career. Ricciardo was also rumored to join Mercedes. However, he couldn’t resist a return to Red Bull.

Talking to Speedcafe.com, Daniel Ricciardo said, “Feel like I was always appreciative of the opportunity they gave me, but it really hit home – if it wasn’t for them, I literally wouldn’t be on the grid. So there’s that as well, where it’s like coming back to where it all started, and it is like going home. It’s like going home to Mum and Dad, you know.”

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He further added, “They’re your biggest people that supported your whole career, and you just want to be back in that environment, I guess, and feel that warmth and love. I don’t want that to be a headline saying that I haven’t felt that elsewhere, but there’s something about it which I think will feel really nice.”

McLaren boss Andreas Seidl talks about emotional Daniel Ricciardo farewell

Andreas Seidl and McLaren have had a difficult spell with Daniel Ricciardo. Despite having high hopes from the Aussie, he failed to live up to the expectations of the Papaya team. Despite all of that, Seidl has revealed how the Honey Badger’s farewell was an emotional affair for their team.

Seidl said, “The entire weekend, including the farewell celebration that we had in the factory, the farewell celebration at the team barbecue on Thursday night, the three days here knowing that whatever we did was the last time together with Daniel, it was emotional.”

The McLaren boss also wanted to pull out the best result from the weekend. They wanted to keep the pressure on Alpine going into the final race of the season.

Ricciardo finished his final race for McLaren in P9 in the Abu Dhabi GP. He held off late advances from retiring legend Sebastian Vettel in the last lap to earn a decent position.

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It will be an unnatural feeling watching F1 next year and not seeing Daniel Ricciardo in a race car. However, he has consistently reassured fans that this is certainly not the end. Can the Honey Badger fight his way back to the F1 grid?