Daniel Ricciardo says he will consider his future in Formula 1 after the Italian Grand Prix at the end of the sport's current triple-header.
Ricciardo and McLaren agreed to cut short their collaboration by a year, meaning the two parties will part ways at the end of this season.
While Ricciardo's options for 2023 are unclear at this stage, the Aussie is adamant that he wants to continue racing in Formula 1.
"If it’s anything it’s F1," he told the media at the Spa mast weekend. "That’s the only place I see myself racing in the near future. So that’s something I’m sure of at least what I want.
"But I want to see."
Last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix was the first leg of a busy triple-header that will continue at Zandvoort next weekend and conclude in Italy at Monza, the scene last year of Ricciardo's last win in Formula 1.
"This weekend’s been a bit of a wave and we’re into a triple-header so I feel like the next three weeks are going to be relentless," he explained. "Not necessarily on this topic, but just as a schedule.
"So, I want to get these three under my belt and then see how I feel. I’m not interested in making any quick decisions or certainly nothing emotional.
"We’ll see how it goes but certainly the objective, if I’m behind a race wheel, is a Formula 1 car for sure."
Until last weekend, Ricciardo was singled out as a favourite to replace Fernando Alonso at Alpine.
But the French outfit's top brass has reportedly set its sights on negotiating a deal with Red Bull over the services of Pierre Gasly whose contract with the energy drink company still has a year to run.
Haas and Williams also have open seats for next year, but both teams would appear on paper as second tier choices for Ricciardo, while the latter has made no mention of a sabbatical.
Assessing Ricciardo's plight, Sky F1's Martin Brundle, who has always been a big fan of the eight-time Grand Prix winner, says the McLaren driver looks like a "broken man".
"I’m not enjoying watching Daniel," Brundle said in Spa. "It’s painful isn’t it. I consider him a friend and I rate him massively as a person and a racing driver.
"If I was McLaren I would have been doing the same thing because he’s struggling to get pace and you can’t take that for another 18 months. I would have done exactly the same thing.
"How they’ve done it — they’ve made an agreement, this is a tough business.
"Daniel didn’t convince me that he wanted to stay on the grid, that he wanted to go to Alpine or anywhere else.
"I think he potentially does, but I saw a bit of a broken man, I didn’t see ‘I’m going to win a race this year, I am going to be on the grid next year. I’ll show them they’ve made the wrong decision here’."
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