Ricciardo blasts Red Bull doubters after key weekend

Daniel Ricciardo has revealed his delight at having proved his critics wrong as he prepares for his first full season back in Formula 1 for the first time since 2022.

Ricciardo will be racing for the newly named VCARB team, having raced under the team's previous guise as AlphaTauri after returning to the grid mid-way through the 2023 campaign as a replacement for the underperforming Nyck de Vries.

It marked a moment of redemption for Ricciardo who had previously been axed at the end of the 2022 campaign by McLaren with a year of his contract still to run having struggled at the Woking outfit.

But after strong performances upon his return to the cockpit, Ricciardo is now being tipped to potentially replace Sergio Perez at parent team Red Bull in the future, and has also been linked with a move to Mercedes in 2025 to replace the outgoing Lewis Hamilton.

READ MORE: Red Bull chief Marko issues statement over Ricciardo to Mercedes F1 switch rumours

Ricciardo names 2023 F1 highlight

Speaking on his LinkedIn account, Ricciardo marked the Mexican Grand Prix as his highlight of the season having bagged an excellent seventh place to grab vital points for the team.

“Highest point of this season was Mexico," Ricciardo said.

“Mexico was the place I got my last ever pole position, so there’s always like, there’s something kind of cool about Mexico for me as well.

“Yeah, I felt like a man on a mission and it was a really cool weekend for me personally to kind of prove that I can still do it.

“But also the team, you know, Red Bull, you know, for sure there’s still some doubters and for the people that have believed in me and supported me, that was really nice to, yeah, just kind of confirm everything they believed in me.”

READ MORE: F1 Schedule 2024: Full calendar with all you need to know about every grand prix

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