Daniel Ricciardo would likely have been replaced in 2025 even if he had avoided this premature end to F1 by being stripped of the remainder of the 2024 season.
This is what David Coulthard, the former Red Bull F1 driver, thinks, who knows the industry and its leaders well.
Red Bull will replace Ricciardo with Liam Lawson at its sister team, RB F1, starting at the upcoming Grand Prix in Texas. This means his 13-year tenure in Formula 1 has likely come to an abrupt end.
"It wasn’t a meteoric comeback for him," analyse Coulthard.
“F1 is not a show between friends. It’s about the clock and the place obtained at the checkered flag.”
“It just feels like, even if it went to the end of the year, there would be a change next year.”
“Everyone is sad to see him leave, in this way at that, but no one really disputes that he had to leave his place, now or at worst in 2025.”
Ricciardo initially lost his F1 drive at the end of 2022 when McLaren ousted him early in favor of Oscar Piastri.
He returned in mid-2023 to AlphaTauri in place of Nyck de Vries, who was not performing very well.
Ricciardo’s progress was hampered by a hand injury, when Lawson replaced him impressively. But Red Bull has kept Ricciardo in its RB F1 team this year.
Ricciardo even hoped that good results would allow him to be promoted to the main team alongside Max Verstappen, a position he once held. This never happened.
Instead, Ricciardo emotionally left the F1 paddock in Singapore after setting the fastest lap.
“He served a purpose. He was out of the points. If it was his last lap in the anger of a Grand Prix car, with a set of soft tires and little fuel, then the honor of the lap the faster must be some consolation.”
Ricciardo was close to tears after the Singapore Grand Prix when he admitted his time in F1 was probably over.
“It was a very difficult weekend. He arrived with growing speculation about his future. He had a great Friday and everyone thought it was going to be a great weekend. He had a tough qualifying and racing …I know he got the fastest lap, but he was so sad at the end.”
“Lawrence (Barretto, the F1 interviewer) didn’t want to make him cry but… it touched his emotions.”
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