Daniel Ricciardo has freely admitted that his decision to leave Red Bull was not necessarily the “best decision” of his Formula 1 career.
Ricciardo shocked the F1 world when he announced his departure from Red Bull in mid-2018.
This came at a time when Ricciardo had entered the title race after winning his second race of the year at the Monaco Grand Prix.
However, a controversial clash with teammate Max Verstappen in Azerbaijan caused tensions within the team.
Verstappen has gradually gained the upper hand and overall had the advantage over Ricciardo despite the German’s better start to the season.
Ricciardo made a big-money move to Renault but ultimately failed to achieve great success.
He missed out on the podium in 2019, but had one of the best years of his career in 2020 amid the pandemic.
However, before the 2020 season was postponed, he opted to join McLaren for 2021 – which was perhaps a bigger mistake given his struggles against Lando Norris.
After what may have been his final race in F1 at last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg was asked in an interview with Sky Sports if he had any regrets.
Ricciardo responded: “I can certainly look back and say… everything made sense in my head at the time. Was it the best decision of my career?”
“Of course you can argue that it wasn’t the case. I’m fine with that. That’s how it is. And there’s no guarantee that if I had stayed I would have had a great run and won this and that.
“You never know what’s going to happen. I’m not here to say this was the biggest decision of my life, but you learn things as you go.
“In the end, I went back to my family. I don’t want to look back and feel sad or bitter about anything.”
“I believe everything happens for a reason. It’s all good.”
From the United States Grand Prix onwards, Liam Lawson will replace Ricciardo in the VCARB race.