Why Ricciardo has a "mountain to climb" ahead of F1 return

1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill says Daniel Ricciardo has a "mountain to climb" as he prepares for his first Grand Prix in eight months at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Having served as Red Bull’s test and reserve driver since leaving McLaren at the end of 2022, Ricciardo has replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri, after the Dutchman was fired last week in the wake of poor performances so far in 2023.

Ricciardo has spent the lion’s share of his F1 career in Red Bull-affiliated machinery, having raced at AlphaTauri's predecessor team Toro Rosso for two years before earning a promotion to Red Bull in 2014, where he raced for five seasons, winning seven races.

However, with AlphaTauri propping up the 2023 Constructors' Championship, and with Ricciardo not having raced since the last Grand Prix of 2022 in Abu Dhabi last November, Hill said the Australian will have to quickly make a good impression.

"Daniel's got that track record, eight Grand Prix victories, and he's had experience with the team, so he's a known quantity," Hill told the F1 Nation podcast.

"There's just something about this which seems to me, if this conversation started in Mexico last year, it's very unusual.

"When Dan left [Red Bull, in 2018], it was all a bit of a shock to Red Bull, but he left because he could see Max [Verstappen] coming, and I think he didn't get that loving feeling.

"Now they're giving him the loving feeling to come back, he's still got to beat [teammate] Yuki Tsunoda, and he's got to really hit the ground running pretty quickly.

"He's going to have a massive mountain to climb. To get back up to speed takes time, and it's not easy to just jump back in, it takes a bit of time to get all the neurons and the nerve endings firing again."