Daniel Ricciardo is content with the possibility of ending his Formula 1 career without a championship to his name.
Despite claiming eight Grand Prix wins and finishing third in the Drivers’ Championship twice, the Australian has never really had the opportunity to fight for F1’s ultimate prize.
In recent years, that ambition has appeared even further away than ever after opting to leave Red Bull for Renault at the end of 2018 before joining McLaren in 2021.
And though Ricciardo hasn’t given up on the prospect of becoming champion, he concedes it shouldn’t be something that consumes him.
“If I put all my life’s work into becoming a World Champion and I don’t become a World Champion, am I going to be depressed the rest of my life? I don’t know, it’s a bit of a risky thing to do,” he told The Race.
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“I think, in this sport, when there are so many other variables in it, nothing’s guaranteed, it’s just not that black and white.
“If I don’t become a champion, life will still go on. I’m fortunate enough to have been able to live my dream for quite a few years now.
“At the end of the day, it’s a trophy, and it’s your name in the history books forever – but you’re still going to go to bed that night, you’re still going to wake up the next day.
“I don’t want to downplay it,” Ricciardo insisted, “but you just want to be mature with the approach of it.
“Lewis has seven of them. Does he feel different to before he had any? I don’t know. I’m not saying I have that answer, but I don’t know.
“It could just be quite scary to invest everything in it because there’s a lot more to life. That’s probably where I’m at with it.”
Speaking last year, however, Ricciardo revealed the one season he feels that dream to become an F1 champion would have been possible with a better car.
“I say yes, but I don’t want to come from a bitter standpoint where I am like ‘dammit, I should have had this, why don’t I have the big trophy’. I don’t come at it from that angle,” he told the Beyond the Grid podcast on if he has the talent to warrant an F1 title.
“I go back to 2014 and in my head, my belief is yeah, I could have won the world title that year, if we had the means to do so. I think for me to win three races when Mercedes were so quick, I am like ok, I believe that in equal equipment I was the guy to beat that year.
“There are years that have gone where if everyone had equal equipment, I believe I was on a level which would have got me a world title.
“But I don’t look at that… I mean even talking about it, I don’t feel that good about it because I don’t want to come at it like ‘yeah, I am better than who won it that year,’ I just know the way I was driving and feeling in myself in those seasons, I was like, yeah!”
Set to turn 33 this July, Ricciardo is now the fifth oldest driver on the F1 grid, and the ‘Honey Badger’ admits if he is to become champion, it will be at McLaren.
“The reason why I’m not remotely thinking about another team or beyond my future is that I actually won in maybe the hardest year of my career,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
“My thought is if I win in a year like that, what does that say about the journey ahead? I am definitely excited, and I want to be here – possibly until the end of my career.
“I’ve been around a bit in the last three or four years, but because I like the environment at McLaren so much and I enjoy it so much, I really want to make this project work. I want to be here.
“The surroundings fit as well. I like the brand, I like the road cars. I can say that I really like being part of this company, part of the McLaren family.”
