Racing
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Daniel Ricciardo has reopened the door to racing again, but only if it comes back on his terms, saying any future return would be about enjoyment rather than titles, trophies or proving anything.
Ahead of a visit to the Indianapolis 500 as a fan, Ricciardo told Conor Daly on the Speed Street podcast that he is no longer ruling out another spell in the cockpit, even after stepping away from Formula 1 in 2024. “Never say never,” he said. “I’m really enjoying not competing where I currently sit, and just enjoying the small things in life, and not having to kind of be on a stage and all that.
“Do I know what I’ll feel in three years, five years? No.”
That is a shift from the hard stop that followed his F1 exit after the Singapore Grand Prix, when Racing Bulls replaced him with Liam Lawson for the rest of the season. Ricciardo said he needed distance from the sport to understand his relationship with it again.
“At the end of my career, I was like, ‘Why do I love it?’ And I just wanted to remove myself for a bit,” he said. Since then, attending races from the outside has helped, adding that it “kind of rebuilt a healthy relationship with it.”
If he does race again, Ricciardo made clear it would not be driven by the kind of pressure that defined much of his top-level career. He said any comeback would be “more from a fun aspect than, like, ‘I’m chasing some championship’ aspect.”
He added: “I don’t need to hold a trophy in something. I don’t need this for myself. Sometimes that can take the enjoyment out of racing.” That balance, he said, matters more now than the result itself. “I just want to make sure if I was to ever do something again, it’s just joyful,” Ricciardo said. “I just want to have some fun with it.”
His appearance at Indianapolis does not mean IndyCar is the obvious answer. Ricciardo praised the discipline and the level of commitment it demands, but he was blunt about what oval racing looks like from the outside. Speaking to Daly, he said: “What you guys do, scares the s*** out of me!” He also described it as giving him “a blue fear,” even while calling it “absolutely brilliant.”
That leaves his Indy 500 trip looking more like a fan’s visit than a scouting mission for a comeback. Ricciardo said: “I don’t think I’ve been this excited to go watch a race as a fan since I was a kid,” and expects the event’s scale and atmosphere to still “totally blow me away” despite a lifetime spent in racing paddocks.
For now, the clearest part of Ricciardo’s thinking is not where he might race, but what would need to change before he does: any return has to feel lighter than Formula 1 did at the end, and worth doing purely because he enjoys it.