Daniel Ricciardo has expressed his desire for “one last chance” to compete against Max Verstappen before his Formula 1 career concludes. Ricciardo and Verstappen were teammates at Red Bull for nearly three seasons, from 2016 to 2018, after Verstappen was promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull during the 2016 season.
Following Ricciardo’s win at the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, his seventh with the team, his performance began to decline. By the summer break, it was announced that he would be leaving Red Bull for Renault.
In the six years since, Ricciardo has struggled to recapture the success he experienced with Red Bull, with the exception of a surprising victory with McLaren at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. As the current season takes a break in August, Ricciardo’s future remains uncertain after a season marked by inconsistent results, leaving him with just 12 points, 10 behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Whether the remaining 10 races this season will be Ricciardo’s last in F1 remains to be seen, but he has been confirmed to finish the season with Red Bull. What lies ahead for him next season is still a matter of speculation.
In an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, Ricciardo candidly expressed his wish to face Verstappen one last time. “Yeah. I’m not going to give a diplomatic answer. Of course, I would,” he said. “I know I need to earn it. It’s not just going to be handed to me but if I earned it and the chance was there, of course, I’d love to do it. So we’ll see.”
Ricciardo had highlighted the final two races before the summer break, in Hungary and Belgium, as crucial for his future, and he delivered respectable performances, including a 10th place finish in Belgium. However, he remains uncertain about what will unfold after the summer break.
“Is any of it a reality? I would say no, until it is. But it can change,” Ricciardo noted. He acknowledged the unpredictable nature of his current situation, saying, “Even after Canada, and there were some things going on that weekend, and I was under some pressure, I had a good weekend. All of a sudden, ‘Oh yeah, he’s back’. But then if you don’t perform the next weekend, it’s back to square one. So it’s weekend by weekend at this rate. Do I want to be great every weekend? Sure.”
