There are few drivers in Formula 1 that are as overwhelmingly beloved as Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo. From the adoring fans spanning the multiple teams the Aussie has driven for, to his colleagues in the Paddock, Daniel Ricciardo is a friendly face of Formula 1, one that many viewers, young and old, can’t imagine the grid without.

Back to the Roots

The Aussie was born in sunny Perth, Australia on July 1st, 1985, and began karting in 1998, at the age of nine, after telling his father he needed a kart because he “liked driving fast.” He spent seven years in karting before moving up to junior formulae series, where he struggled at first due to old equipment.

Young Daniel Ricciardo (Photo via Herald Sun)

After moving to European junior series in 2007, Ricciardo quickly came up the ranks and joined the Red Bull Junior Programme in 2008. He competed in British Formula 3, winning the Championship in 2008, and Formula Renault 3.5 over the next few years with success, only missing the FR3.5 championship by two points in 2010. Thanks to his one-lap prowess during testing in 2010, where his lap time was 1.3 seconds faster than F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel’s qualifying lap just the week prior, Ricciardo was named the Test and Development Driver for Toro Rosso in 2011. Ricciardo made his Formula debut in 2011 with Hispanica Racing, where he replaced Narain Karthikeyan for the British Grand Prix and onwards. However, it wasn’t until 2012 that Toro Rosso (now Visa Cash App RB) placed him in a full time seat.

Ricciardo moved to Red Bull in 2014 following the departure of fellow Australian Mark Webber from the team, and he had a standout year, finishing third in the championship with 238 points overall. He stayed with Red Bull until the end of 2018, at which point rising favoritism towards young Dutch driver Max Verstappen and a grid-high total of eight DNFs in the season encouraged him to move to Renault, an announcement that shocked the world.

Ricciardo with Red Bull Racing (Photo via CNN)

It has long been debated if this decision to move away from a successful Red Bull to a mid-field team like Renault is what began the long downfall of Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career. The choice to step away from a top team that isn’t prioritizing your career is not an easy one to make for a man that likes to win. With the rise of Verstappen in prominence within the Red Bull team, Ricciardo would have been seen as a clear second driver. The decision to go to Renault was seen as a chance for Ricciardo to be the top driver once again, even if he did not place as high in the standings during his tenure at Renault as he did at Red Bull.

Ricciardo didn’t stay at Renault for long, a wise decision looking at the state of the team today (now called Alpine). His choice to sign with the Woking-based McLaren Racing for 2021 brought excitement to silly season. Ricciardo would pair up with another grid favorite, British driver Lando Norris, and it seemed to be a duo fans loved to see together. Throughout early 2021, the Aussie seemed to be getting used to the car, placing regularly within the points but often lower than his teammate. In Monza, his success with McLaren appeared to be at an all time high, finishing on the top step and securing the team’s first win since Brazil 2012.

Ricciardo doing his signature shoey (drinking champagne out of his racing boot) on the Monza podium (Photo via ESPN F1)

However, his rallying radio of “For those who thought I left, I never left” after his win may have been too premature. For the remainder of 2021 and well into 2022, Ricciardo struggled with the car and often found himself out of the points. By July of 2022, McLaren decided to go a different route, releasing Ricciardo from his 2023 contract and signing fellow Australian Oscar Piastri in his place. Ricciardo finished the year with McLaren, but was unable to secure a full time drive for 2023.

In November of 2022, Red Bull Racing announced Ricciardo would be returning to the Red Bull family as a Third Driver for the team, meaning he would serve as their test and reserve driver. Following a successful Pirelli Tyre Test at Silverstone in July 2023, AlphaTauri (now known as VCARB) made the decision to drop Nyck de Vries and hire Ricciardo to partner Yuki Tsunoda. Ricciardo had a rough start to 2024, only scoring 12 points compared to his teammate’s 22 points, but in the last 10 races, he had performed higher than Tsunoda in seven of them. So why did VCARB choose to drop him with only six races left?

Where did it all go wrong?

It is no secret to those who are familiar with the driver’s history that Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t been the same since leaving the Red Bull family in 2018 for yellower pastures at Renault. But, the Australian never failed to pull through with a bright smile, even standing on top of the podium once more since leaving the Milton Keynes factory. Ricciardo had a particular charm about him, a spark that seemed to light up within the Paddock cameras; one that seemed to be slowly fading in recent years as the car developments weren’t working in his favor.

Although Ricciardo has struggled with the cars he’s been placed in in recent years, things seemed to be turning around for him in 2024. He’d been performing on par with Tsunoda, the tide shifting back in his favor as he worked with the VCARB team. After scoring points in the Hungarian Grand Prix, wild speculation arose in the Paddock that the Australian was tapped by Red Bull to take Sergio “Checo” Perez’s seat after the summer break. However, Red Bull executives denied the claim days later. Just a few weeks have passed, and now Ricciardo is saying goodbye to F1 forever. So how did it all go so wrong so quickly?

The official F1TV pre-race broadcast labelling Ricciardo as “Struggling Again” much to the outrage of fans (Photo via The Mirror)

After leaving Red Bull, Ricciardo went through a learning curve in his first year, beating his teammate Nico Hulkenberg in the final standings but still only finishing ninth. By his second year, he seemed to be doing well at Renault when looking at pure results, finishing fifth, only six points behind Sergio Perez. However, his 2021 move to McLaren, a team that seemed to be on the rise, may have been what truly did him in. The driver that was known to have all the sheer confidence behind the wheel began to struggle with the hand he was dealt from this point onward.

Once it was announced that Perez, even with his subpar results that could cost Red Bull first (or even second) place in the Constructors Championship, would be staying at Red Bull, the final nail was in the coffin of Ricciardo’s career in F1. Without a place for him at the top team, it was necessary that VCARB promote a junior driver in his place, giving Liam Lawson the chance to replace Ricciardo once again.

The Legacy that will never leave

The impact of Daniel Ricciardo on Formula 1 goes far beyond the statistics. His sportsmanship and camaraderie has won him multiple awards in both the international and national stages. Over the years. Ricciardo has won multiple BRDC Bruce McLaren trophies for “the Commonwealth driver who has established the most meritorious performances in international motor racing” and Innes Ireland trophies as “the driver who best displayed the qualities of courage and sportsmanship epitomized by the late Innes Ireland.” Perhaps one of his more famous records is his Star in a Reasonably Priced Car lap of the Top Gear test track, beating the previous record-holder Lewis Hamilton with a time of 1:42.2. In 2021, his home nation of Australia appointed him a Member of the Order of Australia in their 2022 Australia Day Honours for “significant service to motor sport as a competitor and ambassador, and to the community.”

Ricciardo in a GQ interview reading a fan tweet stating “Why is Daniel Ricciardo joking about retiring? He’s the only reason I watch the sport.” (Photo via GQ)

While records are broken and history goes on, the legacy of Daniel Ricciardo will always be who he was as a person. He was known never to be without a smile, even when things were visibly tough for him. His infectious smile and boisterous laugh drew fans to the sport globally as Netflix’s Drive To Survive series began with the powerful story of his rise in Red Bull and shocking transition to Renault. With the prominence of social media and being able to relate to celebrities and sportspeople, his personality drew more and more fans in recent years, only endearing new viewers even more with his openness and joking nature in front of cameras.

Ricciardo surrounded by his laughing colleagues, dressed in a Texas jersey and cowboy hat at the USGP (Photo via Sports Illustrated)

It’s clear to see how much the grid, colleagues and competitors alike, adored the Australian simply by opening up Instagram the day of the announcement. Multiple drivers paid tribute to the man they had raced alongside, with a general sense of finality among the masses. 

Ricciardo’s name will always be the first to come up when an Australian does a shoey on the podium or a late braking move is tried on track. His name is synonymous with the idea of pushing the car to the absolute limits and leaving it all on the line, no matter what. 

Although Ricciardo may have finished 18th in his final race, the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix ended on a positive note for him. If the 2024 championship comes down to a point between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, it would be the final sacrifice of Daniel Ricciardo, pushing to the max on his last lap in an F1 car, securing the fastest lap (and a new Singapore GP race lap record) and denying McLaren the points they desperately need.

An Improper Farewell

With what looks like a final goodbye Instagram post, drivers posting their farewells, and a reportedly emotional final hours in the Singapore paddock, Daniel Ricciardo deserves better than the lackluster goodbye VCARB has given him. There was no emotional video like Vettel, or donuts like Alonso. Not even his family was there surrounding him at his last race like Räikkönen. Unlike Ricciardo’s larger-than-life personality, his exit from the paddock was a quiet one that didn’t match the man it should have honored.

After 257 race starts, eight wins, 32 podiums, three poles, 17 fastest laps, and 1329 points, you would think that his final team in F1, the one that gave him his first full time seat on the grid, would have allowed a legend of the sport like Ricciardo a proper send-off if this truly is his final drive in Formula 1.

Ricciardo waving to the camera as he enters the paddock (Photo via NationalWorld)

As fans, competitors, and colleagues worldwide mourn the loss of the ever-smiling Honey Badger from the F1 Paddock on social media, there is also a general sense of desperate hope among the masses; the hope that this isn’t the last the race track has seen of Daniel Ricciardo – the last of the late brakers.