Daniel Ricciardo is having a difficult season at McLaren. There are also some uncertainties about his future at the team from Woking. Nevertheless, the always smiling Australian remains combative. The driver has been inspired by Sergio Perez, who was in danger of being left without a seat at the end of 2020 but is now winning races at Red Bull Racing.

Ricciardo is currently in his second season with the British team and has a contract until the end of 2023 at McLaren. Despite winning the Italian Grand Prix last season, Ricciardo often comes up short compared to teammate Lando Norris. Therefore, McLaren would be looking for a way to get out of the eight-time Grand Prix winner's contract in order to give Oscar Piastri the chance to make a promising F1 debut.

Hope for turnaround

Before the summer break, Ricciardo spoke Motorsport.com about his hopes for a career change. At that time there were no rumours that McLaren wanted to swap him for his much younger compatriot Piastri. Ricciardo says he is getting older, but knows more about the sport and that things take time. The Australian says he still believes he and his team can win and would rather see it happen tomorrow. However, he remains realistic that it doesn't always work like that and that 2024 or 2025 is still a long way off, but it could come soon.

Sport is changing fast'

The Perth-based driver also says he is picking up little things from Sergio Perez. His career seemed over when the then Racing Point (now Aston Martin ed.) parted ways with him and secured Sebastian Vettel. Ricciardo says it is a good example of how quickly the sport can change.

Should Piastri take over his seat, a return to Alpine would be Ricciardo's best chance to drive in the premier class of motorsport next season. The former Toro Rosso and Red Bull driver already drove for the then Renault in 2019 and 2020. Alpine seems to have a seat free for next year as Fernando Alonso moves to Aston Martin to succeed Vettel who announced his retirement. Finally, Alpine junior talent Piastri thanked for the seat next to Esteban Ocon as he may go to McLaren.