Daniel Ricciardo isn't afraid to admit he'd love a fairytale finish to his Formula 1 career.
The Red Bull reserve driver and eternal optimist is in the midst of his first season off the grid since debuting in 2011.
The Perth product has made no secret of the fact he'd like to return to F1 by way of Red Bull.
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However, its incumbents Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are contracted through to 2027 and 2024 respectively.
With that in mind, a return via the top Red Bull team might only be forthcoming once Perez ends his tenure.
"This for me would be like the fairytale," Ricciardo told ESPN, speaking on the prospect of a return with Red Bull.
"Honestly, the fairytale ending (would be) to finish my career here if I could have it all my own way.
"But we'll see. I'll probably have to work my way up a little bit but it's really nice to be back here."
Talk of Ricciardo returning to the grid has been relatively quiet of late, despite its sister team AlphaTauri mulling a driver change.
Driver Nyck De Vries has come under intense scrutiny to perform having not threatened to score any points.
The team finds itself last in the teams' championship, having finished second-to-last in 2022.
The most likely alternatives are Super Formula front-runner Liam Lawson or Formula 2 race winner and Honda-supported Ayumu Iwasa.
Ricciardo returned to Red Bull this year after a four-year absence.
After leaving Red Bull at the end of 2018, the eight-time grand prix winner moved to the factory Renault team.
Despite scoring two podiums with the Enstone outfit a year later, Ricciardo opted to move to McLaren after the 2020 season.
The team was trending up and in 2021 he scored his first win since leaving Red Bull at the Italian Grand Prix.
The 2022 season brought a dip in results and he scored points just twice in the first 10 races.
By the end of the year, Ricciardo was out the door after being soundly outperformed by his teammate Lando Norris.
The 33-year-old was signed by Red Bull as its third driver for the 2023 season. He will drive an F1 car this year at Silverstone in July as part of tyre testing.
The F1 season continues on July 2 with the Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull's defacto home circuit.
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