Daniel Ricciardo would consider a return to racing for a one-off event like the Le Mans 24 Hours, and cheekily teased a dream reunion with ex-Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel.

Ricciardo has not raced nor visited the Formula 1 paddock since he was unceremoniously sacked from Red Bull's junior team after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.

The popular Australian, winner of eight races, had considered his career to be done and dusted but has now expressed a desire to come back and finish things his own way.

"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."

He added: "The thought of doing a full championship still doesn't really sound that exciting. Probably a one-off, like a one-off Le Mans."

Asked who he would do an event like Le Mans with, Ricciardo pointed to four-time world champion Verstappen, his teammate at Red Bull between 2016 and 2018.

"I don't want to put pressure on him, but obviously Max is a name that would be high on the list. We talked [on the "Beyond the Grid" podcast] 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."

When told 2014 teammate Vettel has recently been testing Porsche's hypercar programme, Ricciardo laughed and said: "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! 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."

Vettel has not raced since his own departure from F1 in 2022, but Verstappen has dipped his toes into sports car racing recently, with highly-publicised appearances at the Nürburgring 24 Hours and other events over the past few years.

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Verstappen would not be drawn on Ricciardo's suggestion -- saying "this is not new to me of course," suggesting the idea has at least been discussed fleetingly between them.

The Dutchman said he would only consider it if the project was right to win.

"He's a smart man to choose me in the car," Verstappen joked on Thursday when asked ahead of F1's Mexico City Grand Prix. "We have to see. It just depends on a lot of things for me, like if I want to do it, I want to do it proper with really good prep. At the moment I cannot do that. I do not have the free time to dedicate to a Le Mans project with all the other things I'm doing outside of Formula 1.

"I think he said it himself, he doesn't see himself coming back for a whole season and the one-offs can interest him. Why not? If we do something like that -- he would agree, it needs to be proper and to have a chance to win. And to have a chance to win against people that do it for a whole season you need to be prepared really well. Just need to find the right timings."