Former F1 world champion tells Daniel Ricciardo: Once you leave this sport normally you shouldn't come back

Former F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen feels that Daniel Ricciardo might be closing the door on the sport if he takes time off next season.

Hakkinen won the World Drivers' Championship with McLaren in 1998 and 1999. Mika Hakkinen was talking to The Race as he speculated about the future of the Australian. Talking about the situation where the Australian is taking a year off, Hakkinen was not too optimistic about the prospects of the Australian coming back to the sport.

Summing up Daniel Ricciardo's situation right now, he said:

"If Daniel decides to have one year off, from experience I know once you leave this sport normally you shouldn't come back. I think my position was a little bit different because I was already a two-time world champion, I'd achieved my goals. Daniel has a different situation. His performance has been dropping, he’s not going flat-out, so people are not sure if he's quick enough."

Hakkinen added:

"That could make it difficult having a year off and coming back, because if you’re not quick enough, there's always some kind of explanation, some reason. I feel he’s not giving this information very clearly to media, to fans, to the team. That's a bit scary; you have to know why [you're] not able to maximise performance to the same level as [your] teammate."

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Mika Hakkinen draws comparisons with Daniel Ricciardo's sabbatical

Mika Hakkinen drew comparisons with Daniel Ricciardo's sabbatical as Mika did something similar in his career too. Hakkinen took a sabbatical in 2002 as he wanted to take a year off because of the stress of F1 racing.

As it turned out, the Finn never made a return to the sport and announced his retirement. Comparing Daniel Ricciardo's situation to his own, Mika Hakkinen said:

"I did recognise after three-four months, when the [2002] season started and I was in Monaco or wherever, I was definitely feeling like 'no way I wanted to go back there'. It requires so much energy, so much power from your body and physiologically, a lot of energy."

The former Finnish world champion continued:

"I knew that way it doesn't matter if I have one year off, I cannot come back. I already knew that halfway through the season that I'm not coming back. You can't perform out there while thinking 'should I retire or not'. [You have to] go flat-out every second."

It will be interesting to see what is in store for Daniel Ricciardo in the future. Whether and how he makes a return to racing in 2024 is an interesting question.