Ever since Daniel Ricciardo cleared his intentions about taking a year off from Formula 1, teams scrambled to get him on board. While some wanted to sign him as a regular driver, others like Mercedes and Red Bull wanted him as a reserve driver. He has now signed with Red Bull for the role, but Lewis Hamilton always believed he was too good for it.

Daniel Ricciardo arrived at McLaren with a lot of expectations to deliver. As we all know now, he could not deliver on it. Worse, he failed to beat his young teammate Lando Norris on points in both seasons. Resultantly, he had his three-year contract reduced to just two, as he intended to stay away from the grid for a year.

Would things have been different if Lewis Hamilton was managing Daniel Ricciardo?

While Lewis Hamilton won the 2018 championship pretty easily in the end, the start of the season was competitive. Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, and Hamilton had all won two races in the first six races. Daniel, who had won famously at the Monaco GP that year, had a fun conversation with Lewis at the post-race press conference. The presser was eerily similar to the one in Italy this year.

Daniel was asked if his stocks were higher than ever after the two race victories. He replied, “I feel like I’ve done a really good job the first six races and we’ve all got two victories. So yeah.”

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To this, Lewis asked him if he was ahead of his teammate, to which he answered affirmatively. Lewis told him, “Enough said.” The Honey Badger believed Hamilton was being nice and had his back.

To this Lewis said, “He thinks I should manage him. He said I’d negotiate for him.”

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The hilarious back-and-forth saw Ricciardo ask him what cut he would take to which Lewis told him they’d negotiate. Ricciardo then told the press, “If Lewis finishes at the end of the year, he could maybe step in as my manager.”

Things were not so jolly this year for the Aussie driver, though. Lewis, in Italy, was asked if he would like it if Daniel joined him at Mercedes as a third driver. Lewis replied, “If I was managing him, he would be racing.”

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The 7-time world champion clearly still thinks Ricciardo is too good to not race as a regular. Do you think he will return as a regular in 2024?