Ricciardo: The dream is to get back to the big team

The 34-year-old Australian began his comeback with Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri last month, after taking time out following his exit from McLaren at the end of 2022, but hopes eventually to return to reigning champions Red Bull Racing.

Their veteran Sergio Perez will be out of contract as double F1 world champion Verstappen's teammate at the end of next season. While he has struggled to keep close to his younger driver in the sister car, the Mexican has fared well better than others who shared the RBR garage with the Dutchman.

Ricciardo's two years at McLaren were disappointing, generally eclipsed by younger teammate Lando Norris. The Aussie was paid to leave Woking early, making way for rookie Oscar Piastri but he said at the Dutch Grand Prix he was now in a good place again and had a point to prove.

Red Bull, for whom Dab raced in his junior career, guided him into F1. First, they paid for his rookie in 201 HRT drive, then promoted him to Toro Rosso before he got the nod to be teammate to Sebastian Vettel at RBR in 2014. He surprised the paddock in 2019 when he parted ways with RBR for a lacklustre stint with Renault before his ill-fated move to McLaren.

But all that is water under the bridge for F1's prodigal son, who told Sky F1: "Now that I'm back in the Red Bull family it's the only place I want to be and want to stay. However much longer my career is, it's where I want to end my career.

"It feels like it's the perfect way to finish this second part of my career and of course, the dream is to get back to the big team. But if it's not that, then I made it clear that I want to be here (AlphaTauri)."

On Thursday ahead of Dutch Grand Prix practice day on Friday, Ricciardo told reporters at Zandvoort that he was looking well beyond the end of the season: "I want to be racing for a few more years. Six months ago that was not my answer... It feels like me 10 years ago, I feel like I do have that young energy again and that motivation.

"I want to get back to the early days and the real kind of roots and the core of why I got into this and the things that motivated me... just kind of strip everything back and get back to the pure enjoyment of the sport and the love of it."

Ricciardo had no need for an August break after missing the first 10 races but he said it gave him more time to work on his fitness while others switched off: "I was certainly looking after my body more than I usually would on a summer break.

"This second chapter of my career I am feeling different about things... I'm in a very good place and taking it seriously," admitted Ricciardo who said he felt like he had hit the ground running in Hungary and Belgium but needed to make sure he did not get back into 'old habits'.

Asked what they might be, the Australian laughed: "Sometimes I just talk and things come out. I guess what I meant was probably not bad habits but just some negativity. When the results aren't going well of course it's hard to still be this really positive ball of energy.

"If I feel like I'm falling into a place of negativity then I have the awareness now to not slip into that, just through experience," added Ricciardo, who will be making his 236th Grand Prix start on Sunday.