Ricciardo signed for McLaren on a three-year deal from the 2021 season after leaving Renault , but especially early on he was unable to match the pace of teammate Lando Norris.
Norris scored three podium finishes and more than double the points of Daniel Ricciardo before the summer break, as the Australian struggled through the first half of the season.
But Ricciardo responded with authority by taking McLaren’s first victory in almost nine years at the Italian GP, leading a team one-two ahead of Norris.
Ricciardo opened up after winning the race to tell McLaren: “Deep down I knew this was going to happen so thank you for supporting me. And for anyone who thought I was gone, I never left. I just stepped aside for a time”.
Ricciardo explained that the message was addressed not only to those who had written him off, but also to himself after admitting that he had some doubts and questions.
“I admit that message was aimed at, I guess, people who maybe thought I was gone, and that I was done or whatever,” Ricciardo said in a season-ending interview with media including Motorsport.com. .
“But still, first of all, that message was for me because there were times when I lost a little bit of faith and I asked myself, why am I suffering so much? Am I now a little afraid not to push the car so much? “.
“I knew it wasn’t, but still, when things don’t go well, some of these questions come up. So the ‘I never left’ was going for me too, like I could still do it, I still deserved to be here. And anyone that he has forgotten that, that he forgets no more”.
Ricciardo said that after his strong end to the 2020 season with Renault and beating Norris in the first race of 2021 in Bahrain, he thought “it was only going to get better”.
“Maybe that was bad, because then it was probably even more disconcerting to go backwards for the next few races,” Ricciardo explained.
“But yeah, I think then in the second half of the season it was better. I got a win and did all of this, and confirmed a lot of things for myself.”
“I’m happy. I’m happy where things are. Not everything is perfect, but I’m happy.”
One of the low points of Ricciardo’s season came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, when after suffering damage on the first lap, he crossed the finish line 11th on a Sunday where only 13 drivers finished.
Ricciardo believes footage from his car’s on-board camera showing him as a dejected figure in the Parc Fermé as he surveyed the damage to his car “explained everything about why he needed the summer break”.
“Despite how dejected I was at the time, a part of me was also happy, because it was like ‘OK, the first half has been how it has been,'” Ricciardo continued.
“It was almost ridiculous in a way. So ‘fuck it, let’s get on a plane and not care about F1 for two weeks.
“I think everyone works differently, but sometimes I need that outlet. I am not a driver who goes to bed every night thinking about F1. So I knew that unplugging was going to be healthy for me.”
