Ricciardo unsure staying at Red Bull 'would have been great'

Daniel Ricciardo reiterated his view that he has no regrets over leaving Red Bull at the end of 2018 as he believes that it's "not a sure thing" that things would have been great had he stayed.

Ricciardo will enjoy a homecoming of sorts next season when he returns to Milton Keynes, having signed up with Red Bull as a reserve driver for 2023.

The Aussie's move comes after McLaren brought an early end to his three-year contract with the team, a premature resolution that followed two disappointing seasons with the Woking-based outfit in 2021 and 2022.

Ricciardo had transferred to McLaren following two campaigns with Renault that had yielded only a pair of podiums with the French outfit, both achieved in 2020.

Considering the remarkable success - 30 wins - enjoyed by Verstappen at Red Bull since Ricciardo's exit at the end of 2018, and the Aussie's meager track record since, questioning the wisdom of the Aussie's decision to seek a new challenge away from Milton Keynes is a legitimate interrogation.

"I don’t look at it like that, because nothing is sure," Ricciardo told Formula1.com's Tom Clarkson on the latter's Beyond the Grid podcast.

"If I stayed there the last four years, could I say I would have had more podiums than I’ve had? What have I had, maybe three or something?

"Yeah, I’m confident to say I would have had more podiums than I’ve had,” said Ricciardo, who has rejoined Red Bull in a third driver role for 2023.

• Read also: Ricciardo admits he ‘felt for Piastri’ during Alpine saga

"But you just don’t know. Obviously at the time I felt like it was right for me. I felt like I needed a change and I needed to kind of just remove myself a bit. If I continued [at Red Bull], would that urge have grown?

"Would I have become, let’s say, more curious or less happy, or whatever?

"It’s not a sure thing that it would have been great if I stayed. I don’t look back and say, ‘Man, I shouldn’t have [left]’.

"But, of course, I can be honest with myself and say, ‘Yeah, I took a little bit of a gamble on myself’."

Ricciardo has little to show for taking that gamble but delivering a pair of podiums to Renault and returning McLaren to the winners' circle are nevertheless achievements that he is proud of.

"I still feel like the Renault [move] was pretty good, especially 2020 – [that was] one of the best seasons I’ve driven in F1," he admitted. "To get the team back on the podium, I was very proud of that.

"But obviously the McLaren one, even with the win… the win was a high and I can’t remove that, I can’t ignore that. I can look and say, ‘I tried as well with this one [and] it didn’t quite work out’.

"You live and you learn, but I don’t look back with regret. I just say, ‘Okay, it was a challenge I took on, and it didn’t work out how I hoped'."

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