AUSTRALIAN FORMULA 1 star Daniel Ricciardo tried to race at the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Red Bull driver ended his 2014 campaign with three race wins and was the talk of the F1 paddock after his breakout season.
With a gap in the calendar allowing F1 drivers to race at Le Mans in 2015, the Aussie admits he put feelers out to take part in the enduro classic before the move was kyboshed.
F1 rival Nico Hulkenberg signed with Porsche to race the team’s third LMP1 entry, eventually winning the race with Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber.
“Le Mans would be cool. To be honest, I wanted to do it last year,” he told AA. “There was maybe some opportunities to do it last year, but it was a bit too much with everything going on [at Red Bull] and the team preferred me to just focus on F1. It makes sense for now. Obviously [Nico] Hülkenberg went and did it and won – I would love to have done it. So that can happen. I guess the beauty of Le Mans is it can happen 10 years from now. It doesn’t need to be done today.”
While he admits his immediate focus is on Formula 1 and returning Red Bull to its winning ways, the 26-year-old did consider contingency plans after Red Bull threatened to leave the sport last year when it struggled to source an engine supply deal.
“There were thoughts in the back of my head but I didn’t actually think it would happen,” Ricciardo added. “I assumed something would’ve popped up when it needed to. I had faith. But what I would have done otherwise, I don’t know. But definitely racing of some sort. Maybe NASCAR, but I’m aware that wouldn’t be easy to adapt to so I’d need a fair bit of practice if I was to go there.”