Horner and Red Bull bringing 'vulnerable' Ricciardo back from the brink

Christian Horner has suggested that Daniel’s Ricciardo’s experiences with other Formula 1 teams made him fall out of love with the sport.

The Red Bull team principal has taken Ricciardo on as a reserve driver this year, after the Australian left the Milton Keynes team at the end of 2018 to head to Renault and then McLaren.

Horner spoke of how Ricciardo’s years away from Red Bull had changed him, saying he had lost his ‘self-confidence’ as well as losing ‘a huge amount of weight’.

Horner told the team’s podcast, Talking Bull: “It's great to have him back – we didn't want him to go in the first place. So anyway, he went off on his life experience through a couple of different teams, and certainly the last couple of years we haven't seen the real Daniel.

“I mean, when Daniel drove for us he was right up there with the very best and one of the best racers, some of his overtaking moves were legendary. We didn't really see that over the last couple of years.”

He said that Red Bull gave Ricciardo a ‘lifeline’ to remain in Formula 1, adding: “It just felt that it was too soon for him to be calling a day on the sport.

“And for such a big personality – I mean, he's the kind of guy who lights up a room when he walks into it, so it was great to get him back in a different role this year.”

Horner: It wasn't a Daniel that we recognised

Horner also suggested that Ricciardo’s time with other teams had dampened his passion for racing.

He said: “For him, I think [it is] to also start to try and fall in love with a sport again because I feel that he'd lost that passion through the experiences that he had.

“You know, he's a really sensitive guy and behind that big smile he's very vulnerable.

“And I think that that the experiences that he had the last couple of years, you could see it took its toll on him and his enthusiasm for the sport – and certainly when he first came back it wasn't a Daniel that we recognised.

“He was driving differently, he looked different, he’d lost a huge amount of weight and he was almost done.

“He’d lost that self-confidence and that self-assurance, and bit by bit that's coming back and we're getting to see the true Daniel again."

READ MORE: Horner reveals how he poached F1 GENIUS Newey for Red Bull

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