Ricciardo hoping new F1 ride leads to bright future

As Daniel Ricciardo prepares to take the wheel of Red Bull’s recently rebranded junior team for the start of a new Formula One season, he swears that his mind is not racing ahead.

Ricciardo raced for Red Bull from 2014 to 2018, and he is hoping to return if number two Sergio Perez departs at the conclusion of the season. Ricciardo finished fourth fastest on the opening day of testing last Wednesday.

Next week, the Australian will begin the new campaign in Bahrain against the sponsor-friendly Visa Cash App RB, an Italian squad that was previously known as AlphaTauri. Prior to that, the Australian competed for Scuderia Toro Rosso and Minardi.

Ricciardo’s team, also referred to as RB, which stands for racing bulls, placed seventh in the previous season and will have stronger links to reigning champions Red Bull in 2024.

After leaving McLaren at the conclusion of 2022, Ricciardo joined Yuki Tsunoda of Japan at AlphaTauri for seven races in the previous year.

Being a piece of the “silly season” puzzle, when several drivers have contracts expiring at the end of the year, he was content for other drivers to take center stage following Lewis Hamilton’s unexpected 2025 switch from Mercedes to Ferrari.

“I was just happy to be watching and not being directly involved,” Ricciardo stated.

“I want to focus on doing my work here, and perhaps it will lead to great things.

The Australian downplayed rumors that RB would surprise everybody by winning the upcoming season. Red Bull appeared to be the team to beat even though Ferrari was fastest in testing thanks to their new RB20 car, an eye-catching upgrade from the winner of 21 of 22 races the previous year.