Ricciardo on interest in his F1 comeback: ‘It was like I won the world title’

Ricciardo made a sensational return to F1 in place of Nyck de Vries just eight months after he was dropped by McLaren.

• The Ricciardo-Alonso pep talk on an aeroplane which changed F1 fate

The Australian fared well on his first race back, finishing 13th at the chequered flag.

He managed to out-qualify and out-race teammate Yuki Tsunoda as Ricciardo looks to rebuild his career following a poor two-year stint alongside Lando Norris.

Speaking to a number of media outlets, including ESPN, on Thursday at Spa-Francorchamps, Ricciardo acknowledged the busy press session once again.

"I thought today would've been a lot smaller, I thought you would have forgotten about me already," Ricciardo said.

“I definitely made a point to enjoy it all. The media day, there was a lot. I think I joked it was like I won a world championship there was so much interest. But you kind of just have to soak it all up and enjoy it.”

Despite his positive start, Ricciardo admitted there’s still a lot more room for improvement as he targets an ultimate return to Red Bull in the future. 

"I know the sport well enough not to assume every time now I'm going to be quicker. I know there is still going to be more for me to learn," Ricciardo added.

"I think the weekend as a whole went well, on Monday I was pretty knackered as well. I was very low-key, I just reflected on it, yes I was happy with my performance, but I was happy about the way I was going racing again.

"Obviously I'm very results-driven, but I felt like I had done everything I needed to. In the end, whatever you call it, a bit of bad luck at Turn 1 or whatever, it meant 13th. But I was still happy with everything that I put into the weekend.

"The support I got from the team, that's also an unknown, how they're going to react and respond to a new driver. A week ago they didn't know I was going to be driving the car. Also the spotlight is on the team. I think everyone handled it well."