Daniel Ricciardo’s career in F1 is over! The news fell this Thursday and it was rather brief, in the form of a message on the social media of the Racing Bulls team, attributed to its director Laurent Mékiès: “The entire Racing Bulls team would like to thank Daniel Ricciardo for his work throughout the two seasons with us. Daniel was a true gentleman on and off the track and we will not forget his smile. We will miss him but he will always be remembered within the Red Bull family.” Mékiès further adds: “He brought a lot of experience and talent to the team with a fantastic attitude, which helped everyone develop and foster a close-knit team spirit.”
It is with these few politically correct but summary lines to say the least that Red Bull officially announced that the Australian driver would not finish the current season, replaced at the next event in Austin (United States Grand Prix) by the young New Zealander Liam Lawson, the reserve driver of the Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls teams.
Even if the announcement is simple, it was no longer in doubt after last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, when Ricciardo finished last but was still credited with the fastest lap of the race after returning to the pits to receive a set of new tires with three laps to go. Aged 35, Daniel Ricciardo has competed in 257 Grands Prix, collecting 8 victories, 3 pole positions and 17 fastest laps. He had his best seasons in 2014 and 2016, finishing 3rd in the World Championship with the Red Bull Racing team.
Arriving in F1 in 2011 as a member of the small HRT team, he subsequently graduated to Toro Rosso for two seasons, before becoming Sebastian Vettel’s teammate at Red Bull Racing from 2014. It’s at the Grand Prix du Canada which he won his first Grand Prix, in June 2014. Dominating Vettel in 2014, he became the first Red Bull Racing driver when the German left for Ferrari in 2015. But, from 2016 and the arrival of Max Verstappen within the team, he was dominated by the young Dutch prodigy.
Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull for Renault in 2019 for two disastrous seasons. He then joined McLaren in 2021 where, despite a final victory at Monza, he was very often relegated to a few tenths of his young teammate Lando Norris. After losing his steering wheel at the end of the 2022 season, he accepted the role of reserve driver at Red Bull, who gave him a steering wheel at AlphaTauri which became Racing Bulls for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, where he hardly convinced against Yuki Tsunoda. So it was only a matter of time before we saw him replaced by Liam Lawson.
“I have loved this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and it’s been a journey. To the teams and individuals who played their part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me, thank you. It will always have its ups and downs but it’s fun and the truth is I wouldn’t change it. See you for a next adventure! » simply commented Daniel Ricciardo. In the wake of this announcement, the Racing Bulls team has made Liam Lawson official for the remainder of the season, and likely next year, alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
