Daniel Ricciardo said racing in other series would not have allowed him to fight for top results in Formula 1, but he is not sure whether he would get the sense of achievement he craved.
Red Bull announced on Thursday that Ricciardo has been traded in favor of Liam Lawson for the remainder of the 2024 season. There is absolutely no indication that the Australian could secure a place on the F1 grid in 2025. He spoke before his future was officially confirmed. , Ricciardo has considered other racing categories in the past and admitted he might be interested in them with F1 behind closed doors, but he doesn’t have anything in particular in mind.
“I’m still scared of Indica!” Ricardo said. “I mean, I thought about it because I thought about it a few years ago when I found out I wasn’t going to start the 2023 season. I don’t know. I know I’m still a competitor. I know I still have a lot of fire inside me. Maybe that itch was scratched while doing something else. We’ll see.
“It’s difficult. Even if you say you exercise [F1] And sometimes you fight for 10th place… It’ll probably be like doing another series. This is not to ignore the other series. I am a fan of NASCAR and many other forms of motorsports. I experienced the best of the best there, but could I find true fulfillment doing anything else?
“There is no guarantee that I will be able to do anything else. Will it actually scratch that itch and give me what I want? I don’t know. I would probably say no rather than yes.”
But while Ricciardo will weigh his interest in racing in other divisions now that his future is confirmed, he says his time away from full-time F1 after leaving McLaren means he has no fears about life outside the sport.
“Oh, racing outside, yeah [there’s fulfilling interests]. I have no fear of not getting into the paddock because I’ve already had a bit of experience with it. I loved it, it was great. But fortunately, I have also made friends over the years with other athletes who have been in similar positions. What does stage 2 of life look like?
“I think there is a lot to do and a lot of opportunities. “It is nothing that I fear.”
