Last month marked two years since Daniel Ricciardo’s last motor race to this day, as the eight-time grand prix winner regretfully, discreetly bowed out of Formula 1 – but is his career over?

Ricciardo admits it likely is, having come to terms with the way his F1 stint ended – “I’m not 100% there, but I’m 90%,” he said of his quest of closure – but he might still be interested in further opportunities, as long as they don’t require a season-long commitment.

“A year ago, I would have said, ‘I will never put a helmet on again, I’m done, that’s it’,” Ricciardo told the Beyond The Grid podcast. “But there is something there where I’m like, it would be nice to finish a racing career a bit more on my terms; to do something that, when I take the helmet off, I’m smiling and happy. Maybe that’s the last bit of closure I need.

“The thought of doing a full championship still doesn’t really sound that exciting. Probably a one-off, like a one-off Le Mans.

“F1 is so selfish – in a necessary way. Yes, you have team-mates, but that’s your first opponent and all that. I think to share a car with other drivers and to actually have real team-mates to share data and help out, I think it would be – especially now, at this point where that insane fire and whatever ruthlessness, that has faded to a degree. I think I’ll just enjoy it. It would be the form of driving and kind of companionship that I would really enjoy, and I think it would make me smile and feel good about the art of competition again.”

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

Ricciardo explained he never enjoyed driving all that much and mostly revelled in competition, though his last few years in F1 dampened his enthusiasm. Le Mans could be a new way to find fulfillment, but the Australian – who hasn’t been training the way he used to – is cautious about that prospect. 

“Do I need to open the box again? I don’t know,” Ricciardo pondered. “That’s why I haven’t rushed into making a decision on anything, because, again, I want to make sure I’m not doing it for ego or for some fairy-tale ending. It has to be because it’s right inside me and I really want to do it, and it’s not to please others.

“I’m not going to lie, there’s a part of me which would love to do it for all the people that cared and supported and loved me over the years and also hated the way it ended. So, yes, there is certainly a part of me which feels for the fans, but it has obviously to be for me and my reasons first and foremost.

“That’s the hard part – would it open the box? I don’t think it will; as I said, I’m much more at peace with everything, but then, who am I kidding? Would I go to Le Mans just to go and compete and just be happy to be there, or would I go there to try and win?

“As much as I want to say, ‘Oh, just be happy, just soaking in the experience’, we all know once the helmet’s on it’s different. I can’t deny that I would want to go and do it properly. And that’s maybe something I need to understand as well – is my heart in it?”

A Ricciardo-Verstappen-Vettel trio?

Sebastian Vettel tests the Porsche 963

Photo by: Porsche Motorsport

When it comes to the drivers Ricciardo would dream of sharing that companionship with, other Red Bull icons come up.

“I don’t want to put pressure on him, but obviously Max [Verstappen] is a name that would be high on the list. We talked about Red Bull obviously in 2018, and what if, and what if; I was trying to get back at the team at the end of my career, so maybe that’s a way that we could give the people what they want,” Ricciardo chuckled.

Verstappen has openly expressed interest in Le Mans for the future, and interviewer Tom Clarkson suggested the pair could be joined by Sebastian Vettel, who tested Porsche’s Hypercar challenger in 2024 but is yet to enter the French classic.

“Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!” Ricciardo exclaimed.

“There’s no denying that he still is extremely fast and would be fast in anything. I fricking love Seb, so that could be a nice little Red Bull reunion of sorts.”