'Daniel Ricciardo's sabbatical moves closer': Chris Medland

It’s just that Ricciardo didn’t match those performances. But the move was a fairly sensible one at the time for him that just didn’t work out. It wasn’t necessarily a slight on Renault either, but sources suggest that those who were still involved at that time – namely Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi and Renault CEO Luca de Meo – are not willing to re-sign the Australian.

That’s not looking at it from a performance potential point of view, in my opinion, given how strongly Ricciardo performed after the first half-season at Renault, and the obvious fanbase and marketing platform he also provides, too. Commercially he works, and on a sporting front the signs from his first spell are that he’d work, too.

But knowing you don’t have the full support of the execs is not a good foot to start on, and would understandably make Ricciardo wary of going back. He needs to make his next F1 move — if there is one — a success after the McLaren ordeal, and Alpine isn’t exactly giving off the right signs.

Trackside the team is performing excellently. But when sources suggest discussions with Ricciardo flip-flop between interest and no chance, and after the revelations of how the Piastri contractual situation was handled (not to mention the way Piastri was vilified despite being well within his rights to try and sort his future as Alpine had failed to do), you do start to wonder if it’s an environment Ricciardo would even want to go to, regardless of the car’s potential.

And that only leaves two spots on the grid that take some convincing.

Alfa Romeo is going to stick with Zhou Guanyu for another year, as the Chinese driver has done a very solid job and would have many more points with better fortune, plus there remains a hope to tap into that lucrative market moving forwards.

So that means only Haas and Williams have vacancies that Ricciardo can target.

There are certainly worse places that Ricciardo could go than Haas, with a strong team-mate in Kevin Magnussen, a clear, no-nonsense attitude from the top and a car that can be extremely quick at certain venues. It’s also a good fit with Ricciardo’s popularity in the United States, and if he ever wanted to jump in a NASCAR, I’m sure Stewart-Haas would be more than willing to oblige.

But how quick the car can be highlights how Haas still struggles to find consistency, and has the potential for some really underwhelming weekends. But it is a team that is growing – and looks set to highlight it has no financial concerns with future partnerships in the pipeline that will push it to the budget cap – so Ricciardo shouldn’t be totally dismissive of the project.

Williams is a longer-term commitment as the team keeps restructuring and investing in certain areas that had been allowed to drop far behind the rest of the grid amid some tough years fighting for survival. An iconic name it might be, but Ricciardo heading to Williams would move him as far away from winning races and championships as possible right now, and at 33 he needs to be going in the other direction.

But without the luxury of getting to choose that direction, that’s why a sabbatical is looking more and more likely. Ricciardo has quite clearly not been helped by the timing of his availability, with the more competitive seats long-since taken, but he does still have enough credit in the bank from his time prior to McLaren to step back for a year and allow a bit more distance to develop between his recent struggles and how that impacts his reputation.

His popularity – especially in the United States – should see him able to stay plenty busy enough in 2023 and jump into pretty much any other type of car if he wants, while most teams on the grid would surely sign him as a reserve option, keeping his links to F1 as close as possible.

But it definitely comes with risk. The sooner a seat that attracts Ricciardo opens up the better in many respects, but if that overriding concern is still how he struggled at McLaren it might not make him a team’s first choice. And if one doesn’t open up or turn into a firm offer, then once one year goes by, two is so much more likely to become permanent.

It’s a gamble that Ricciardo is having to weigh up right now, and it is one that, if he does decide to take, is a brave one, because it could mean F1 ends up watching more than just Sebastian Vettel start one of its races for the last time in Abu Dhabi.