Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he has no regrets in his career, and considers the harder moments to be a case of learning a lesson.
The 34-year-old sat out the opening part of the 2023 season after agreeing to the early termination of his three-year deal with McLaren.
That partnership netted victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix but otherwise proved a frustrating period.
Exactly why the relationship failed to fire has no simple answer and in the high-paced world of F1 it was not one either party could afford to give more time.
Through that process, however, Ricciardo was afforded the opportunity to spend time reflecting on his life and career and came to terms with what he’d accomplished.
“I think it’s probably at that age now as well where I don’t really look back on anything with regret,” he said.
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“They’re not necessarily losses, they’re lessons learned. And yeah, of course, I would love to have won more in my career, but then maybe winning would have got boring and maybe I would have not appreciated that as much, or whatever.
“I wouldn’t change it,” he added.
“As long as I can continue to, I would say just grow and become better from experience then I’m pretty content.”
Ricciardo has won a total of eight grands prix during his career, seven of them with Red Bull.
That has seen him spend half his life abroad, away from family, which has become increasingly important as he’s aged.
It’s left him, to a degree, with a sense of guilt for the selfish life he’s been forced to lead to pursue his career.
However, he suggests the trade-off has been being able to experience some of the biggest moments of his life with his parents.
“As a kid, you kind of push your parents away and you want to have your independence but then you go through and you’re like alright, now I want to I want to actually spend more time with family,” he explained.
“You realise the importance they play in your life and, certainly the older I got, the more and more I appreciated my mum and dad, for example, and you realise that the opportunities I have is because of them, ultimately.
“So them you know them being able to share some of my success, then being there in Monaco when I won in 2018, one of the coolest days of my life and one of the greatest achievements, for them to be there and to celebrate that with me I think was really special.
“That made kind of all those days away from them worth it, and all the stress and whatever I put them through when I race every weekend.
“Being able to share that moment and see how, obviously they knew how happy that would make me, but to see how happy it made them made me feel less guilty about yeah living a pretty selfish life as a competitor as a sportsman.”
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