Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he found solace in how Fernando Alonso stepped away from F1 and then returned as competitively as ever.
Ricciardo has joined Scuderia AlphaTauri for the remainder of 2023 after initially intending to take the year out of the sport.
That came after two difficult seasons with McLaren, which resulted in the mutual termination of his contract.
At the time, it was uncertain whether the Australian would return to the F1 grid or if he even wanted to consider such a move.
However, the time away served to restoke the fire within, and his reserve driver role with Red Bull afforded him the platform to state his case.
“Just having this half year off, even if it wasn’t the year I expected off, half a year still gave me… still kind of reset myself, and I feel energised again.
“And actually, I remember having a conversation with Fernando maybe two years ago, and I wasn’t thinking of taking a break, but we were just having a chat, I think, on a flight somewhere.
“He said the break for him was one of the best things he ever did, and that kind of got me thinking maybe if I ever feel I need it, then not to be too scared of it.
“Seeing the year he’s had, that also filled me with some confidence,” he added.
“So yeah, really glad to have kind of been put in this position and come back feeling everything normal again; the grid, the start, the emotion, adrenaline, enjoyed it all.”
Though last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix was the 233rd of Ricciardo’s F1 career, he admitted there were nerves when he lined up on the grid for Sunday’s race.
“For sure, there’s nerves, there’s excitement, there’s a lot of these things,” he admitted.
“Sometimes, we probably forget to remind ourselves just to take it in and just smile at the moment.
“It was really just trying to enjoy it, and of course, you still make sure you stay focused, but just enjoying it.
“The crowd was pretty cool; I heard a lot of cheers. It was fun.”
Ricciardo finished 13th in Hungary, dropping to 18th at the opening corner following contact from Zhou Guanyu.
By contrast, his Scuderia AlphaTauri team-mate, Yuki Tsunoda, qualified five places behind him on Saturday and finished two spots back on Sunday.