Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes it would have been a great shame for Daniel Ricciardo to “whimper out” of F1, declaring the Aussie “isn’t done with Formula 1”.

Ricciardo has returned to Red Bull this year as the team’s reserve driver, rediscovering his love for the sport and reigniting his desire to return to the grid in 2024.

The Australian endured a painful two-year stint at McLaren before they replaced him with compatriot Oscar Piastri and parted ways with Ricciardo with a year left on his contract.

Ricciardo has one of the sweetest gigs going this year — travelling to around eight races of his choosing for Red Bull and getting paid more than $20 million not to drive for McLaren.

His best results in F1 came at Red Bull in 2014 and 2016, where he finished third in the drivers’ championship.

The decision to leave the team where he had so much success for Renault (now Alpine) took the F1 world by surprise.

So returning to his former team made sense in many ways for both Ricciardo and Red Bull, as team principal Horner explained on the It’s Been a Minute podcast.

“Well, we brought him back because I felt that, you know, Daniel wasn’t done with Formula 1,” Horner said.

“And to see him just whimper out of the sport wouldn’t have been right.

“So I think he fell out of love with Formula 1 over the last couple of years.

“Certainly, the Daniel that came back at the end of last year wasn’t one that we recognise, you know, the big smile and the big personality.

“I think he’s gradually refinding his love for the sport. He’s finding his passion for driving again. And we’ll see where that — what opportunities that presents for him.

“But I think the first thing for him is to rediscover his mojo, his passion for the sport and his inner dog.

“So we’re going to give him a test in a few weeks’ time and see — you know, see what he does.”

Ricciardo has done plenty of simulator work so far this year, but his next major milestone will come when he gets to test drive Red Bull’s car after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July.

Red Bull is absolutely flying after six races this season. They are 129 points ahead of Aston Martin in the constructors’ standings and two-time champion Max Verstappen is on top of the drivers’ standings ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.

Being Verstappen’s teammate is arguably the toughest job in F1, which was part of the reason why Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018 after several on-track skirmishes with Verstappen.

But Perez is making a great fist of it, despite crashing out on qualifying in Monaco and missing an opportunity to keep pressure on Verstappen in the championship.

Ricciardo has stated his desire to return to a top team, but with Red Bull and Ferrari’s drivers contracted for next year and Lewis Hamilton inching closer to signing another deal with Mercedes, it will take a minor miracle for that to happen.

“I want to keep learning with the team and see what else I can absorb over the next few races,” Ricciardo exclusively told Total-Motorsport.com.

“I do want to get back next year.

“I do want to compete. I feel more refreshed, and obviously, I’ve flushed out a difficult two years. So I’m in a good place.”

The F1 season continues at the Barcelona Grand Prix this Sunday at 11pm AEST.