Daniel Ricciardo continues to insist he has no plans to switch to IndyCar racing, in the wake of comments made by fellow McLaren driver Pato O'Ward.
The Mexican races for the team in IndyCar, and was in Abu Dhabi last weekend to drive in FP1. And it was while in the paddock that he gave his opinion that Ricciardo could do a lot worse than consider a move to the US-based racing series.
"I think he would love it," said O'Ward of his fellow McLaren racer. "He loves America. So I think Daniel would fit right in." Ricciardo is currently considering his options for 2023 after being left without a race seat.
He is set to sign a deal with Red Bull to return to his old team as a reserve driver. But he made it clear he will not be at every race weekend as he seeks some respite from the sport, and so he will have the time to possibly appear in other series elsewhere.
Asked recently about an appearance back in his homeland in V8 Supercars, the Australian showed a never-say-never attitude. "I don't want to say no yet to anything," he said, after making it clear it would depend on whether his reserve role would "allow" him to race elsewhere.
Responding to those comments made by O'Ward, Ricciardo made it clear that F1 very much remains his priority despite being a fan of US motorsport. "I had a lot of IndyCar drivers reach out and say like, 'mate you would love it here'," admitted the Aussie.
"They were very enthusiastic and spoke very highly of the series and I'm not saying I wouldn't... like the racing looks great. I do watch a lot of the races and I enjoy it as a fan, as a spectator. But I think mentally, I'm just not there at the moment – I'm still kind of with Formula 1 in my mind."
One of those people who has reached out to Ricciardo was former F1 racer Romain Grosjean. He made the switch after leaving Haas at the end of the 2020 season and said on social media recently that the Aussie is "made for IndyCar".
Responding to that, Ricciardo said with a smile: "F**k that – ovals scare me. My Formula 1 career-slash-ambition is not over, so that's really first and foremost. I don't want to deviate, I would say primarily for that reason. But also ovals, nah. Ten years ago, I would have said yes. I'm okay to admit that I'm not okay with ovals."
