Daniel Ricciardo has not had the time with McLaren that he would have wanted following his move from Renault in 2021.
The Australian has been comprehensively beaten by his teammate Lando Norris in 2022, scoring a measly 37 points compared to the Brit’s 122.
After admitting that both team and driver had exhausted every opportunity to make it work between McLaren and Ricciardo, the team decided to make a change for 2023 and bring in rookie Oscar Piastri in place of the 33-year-old.
Ricciardo will now spend a year without a race seat as he hunts for a return to a top team in 2024 and Alex Albon, who had to take a year away from F1 himself in 2021 following his sacking from Red Bull, has sympathised with the Australian.
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The Thai driver was promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull midway through the 2019 season, but after failing to live up to the high standards of his teammate Max Verstappen, Albon was released by the team at the end of 2020.
“Well, I was in a slightly different position,” began Albon when discussing Ricciardo’s McLaren departure.
“I felt like I was hungry maybe a week after I left, or got taken out, but I can see what he means because when you have bad years in F1 – I can only talk about my experience [in] 2020 – it drains you massively.
“The noise in the paddock and of course more than anything, your own performances, you know, we’re born to be competitive and hungry for it and when it’s not that – that’s what we live on. It’s all about performance. It’s all about doing a good job.
“So yeah, it’s very heavy and I think it took me a couple of weeks to kind of get through the emotional impact of missing out on a seat, but because I was young, I think I kind of felt like it was never over, and I knew I could have a chance [of coming] back.”
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Albon returned to Formula 1 last season with Williams and has shown his quality at times, and Ricciardo will also be hoping to return to the grid after a year away.
The Australian will be returning to Red Bull in 2023 to serve as the team’s third driver behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, however it seems unlikely that he will be given a second shot at a race seat with the energy drink giants.
With Perez tied down to a multi-year contract, it seems that Ricciardo will be forced to look elsewhere, should he wish to return to racing in Formula 1 in 2024.