'Wild and wonderful journey': Ricciardo's axing made official as F1 ...

27 Sep 2024

Fox Sports

Daniel Ricciardo has been dropped from RB for the rest of the season in favour of reserve driver Liam Lawson, the team has confirmed.

Daniel Ricciardo - Figure 1 — Photo Fox Sports

The decision, heavily rumoured for a week but not confirmed until today, ends Ricciardo’s career without a farewell race, with the weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix his 257th and last start.

Confirmation came at 1:45am (AEST) Thursday morning via a graphic on RB’s social media channels.

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“Everyone here would like to thank Daniel for his hard work across the last two seasons with us,” RB team principal Laurent Mekies said in a short statement attached to confirmation of Lawson’s promotion.

“He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit.

“Daniel has been a true gentleman both on and off the track and never without that smile.

“He will be missed but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.”

Ricciardo, having said he would end his career in the Red Bull family and having not pursued alternative seats on the grid for next year, acknowledged news of his F1 departure on Instagram.

“I’ve loved this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and been a journey,” he wrote.

“To the teams and individuals that have played their part, thank you.

“To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me haha: thank you. It’ll always have its highs and lows, but it’s been fun and, truth be told, I wouldn’t change it.

“Until the next adventure.”

The 35-year-old Perthite will retire from the sport with eight victories and 32 podiums, making him statistically the fourth most successful Australian grand prix driver of all time behind world champions Jack Brabham and Alan Jones and Red Bull Racing forerunner Mark Webber.

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Ricciardo’s post on Instagram was flooded with messages from current and former teammates and legends of the sport.

Former teammate Verstappen wrote: “Head up mate! More beautiful moments to come.”

Lando Norris wrote with a heart emoji: “Ly brother”.

Lewis Hamilton posted: “It’s been an honour to compete with you over the years. I’ll never forget the battles, the laughs and drinking out of your shoe. It was gross, but glad I got to do it with you bud.

“You leave a legacy of always being yourself, which in this sport is never easy. You’ve taken it all with the biggest smile and I salute you for it. There is so much more for you up ahead and I can’t wait to see what you do next.

“Always here for you, man.”

Ricciardo’s former teammate Pierre Gasly wrote: “Congrats for what you achieved champ.”

George Russell wrote: “Going to miss you mate”.

Former driver David Coulthard posted: “You’ve left an impressive legacy behind you in the sport and always made the paddock a smilier place”.

The official Mercedes team account wrote: “You’ve been an incredible competitor over the years. Thanks for the many fun battles and the infectious energy you brought to our sport both on and off the track.”

Ricciardo’s former boss at McLaren Zak Brown wrote on Twitter: “Daniel, you’re one of a kind. A supremely quick driver and an awesome person to be around.

SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE - SEPTEMBER 22: 18th Placed Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Visa Cash App RB looks on in the Paddock after the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 22, 2024 in Singapore, Singapore. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

The curt notice of dismissal derails Ricciardo’s “fairytale” career ending of replacing Sergio Pérez at Red Bull Racing, the team he left at the end of 2018 for a brief stint at Renault.

He returned to the Red Bull fold last year as third driver after being sacked from McLaren two years into what had been a three-year contract.

He rebuilt his confidence in familiar surroundings, and by the middle of the year he’d replaced the underperforming Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri, now RB.

A broken hand in just his third race back put his comeback on hold for five rounds, but he was nonetheless retained full-time for 2024, with Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner a chief backer of the Australian’s potential to return to winning form and in favour of having an experienced back-up to Pérez, who spent most of last year battling a deep form trough.

But a slow start to the season put him on the back foot. He outqualified and finished ahead of teammate Tsunoda just once in the first eight rounds, after which both the Japanese ace and the bounced-back Pérez were both offered new contracts.

Ricciardo turned the tide on his season from the Canadian Grand Prix, where he qualified an excellent fifth and just 0.178 seconds off pole and finished eighth for his first Sunday points of the season.

From then until the mid-season break he was the better performing RB driver at all but one race, and since Canada he’s outscored his teammate 7-3.

Daniel Ricciardo confirms his F1 departure via Instagram.Source: Instagram

With Pérez in the depths of his worst form slump yet, Red Bull Racing appeared set to promote the improved Ricciardo to the senior team in place of the Mexican for the Dutch Grand Prix, the first race following the break.

However, in a meeting on the first Monday of the mid-season, the team resolved to double down on Pérez until at least this week, at which point Red Bull’s four-driver line-up would be reviewed again.

The given rationale was that some of Pérez’s best tracks were coming up in the four races following the mid-season break, giving him a chance to justify his seat.

But the Mexican has scored just 13 points since the resumption and just one in the last two races. Red Bull Racing has since lost top spot on the constructors championship table and now trails McLaren by 41 points. It’s at risk of dropping to third in the title race, with Ferrari only 34 points further back.

Nonetheless, the team has again decided a second time to stick with the under-pressure 34-year-old.

It’s believed the timing of Pérez’s home grand prix in Mexico City, two races from now, played a key role in keeping him in his seat.

But while Ricciardo hasn’t lived up to his own expectations this year, he’s hardly been bad enough to warrant an early dismissal.

His axing is more to do with politics than pure performance, with Red Bull having resolved to keep Ricciardo in his seat until the end of the year only two months ago.

Horner is believed to still be a backer of Ricciardo’s potential to perform at a decent level at the front of the field.

But Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko is believed to have been pushing hard for Lawson to appear on the grid before the end of the year.

His promotion is being widely viewed as a six-race audition to take Pérez’s seat for 2025.

With competition expected to be tighter at the front next year, Pérez’s ongoing underperformance would almost guarantee the team wouldn’t be able to regain the constructors championship.

Marko, the powerbroker who oversees Red Bull’s driver development program, is also motivated to ensure there’s space in the four-car line-up for Red Bull backed F2 title contender Isack Hadjar next season.

Lawson’s elevation to Red Bull Racing would free up a space for the rookie at RB alongside Tsunoda next year, whereas retaining Ricciardo in the program would leave one seat fewer for the brand’s rising stars.

The Australian has therefore had to make way early to facilitate Red Bull’s newest strategy to fix the problem with its driver line-up at the senior team.

But Ricciardo’s loss is Lawson’s gain, with the Kiwi set to line up alongside incumbent Yuki Tsunoda from the upcoming United States Grand Prix on 18–20 October until at least the end of the season.

RB has so far named him only for the remainder of 2024.

“[Liam] already knows the team well,” Mekies said. “He drove for us last season and coped well under difficult circumstances, so it’ll be a natural transition.

“It’s great to see young talent from within the Red Bull family make the next step. We’re looking forward to getting our heads down and focusing on the rest of the season together.”

Lawson, 22 years old and hailing from Hasting on New Zealand’s north island, has been a member of Red Bull’s young driver program since shortly after his 17th birthday in 2019.

That year he finished second in the Euroformula Open championship and won the Toyota Racing Series, following up with fifth in the 2020 F3 championship.

His career then took an unusual turn in 2021, when he competed in simultaneous full-time campaigns in Formula 2 and German touring car category DTM. He finished ninth in the former but came within just three points of what would have been an extraordinary debut championship in the latter behind the super experienced Maximilian Götz.

His sophomore F2 campaign in 2022 delivered him third in the championship, after which Red Bull placed him in the highly competitive Japanese Super Formula for 2023 as a finishing school.

The Kiwi took the title down to the wire, losing to the more experienced Ritomo Miyata by just eight points.

By then he’d already appeared five times on the Formula 1 grid substituting for Ricciardo after the Australian broke his hand during practice at last year’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Lawson was called up on the Saturday of the race and finished a respectable 13th in treacherous mixed-weather conditions despite never having raced in Zandvoort.

He was a competitive 11th the following week in Monza, but the Singapore Grand Prix was his standout performance, scoring maiden points in ninth. He was just 0.187 seconds slower than Tsunoda on average in representative qualifying sessions.

The Kiwi was disappointed to be overlooked for a full-time 2024 drive despite his impressive form but was effectively promised a seat in 2025.

His nod has come earlier than expected, roughly a year since stepping out of the cockpit.

'What else can I achieve?' | 02:45

DANIEL RICCIARDO CAREER STATISTICS

Race starts: 257 (10th in Formula 1 history)

Wins: 8 (equal 37th with Jack Ickx and Denny Hulme)

Podiums: 32 (equal 32nd with Jim Clark, Jacques Laffite and Jean Alesi)

Pole positions: 3 (equal 58th with José Froilán González, Tony Brooks, Dan Gurney, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Jody Scheckter, Elio de Angelis, Teo Fabi, Sergio Pérez and George Russell)

First win: 2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo wins his first race in Canada. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

Most successful events by points scored (excluding sprints and fastest laps)

1. Singapore Grand Prix: 89 points (best finish: 2nd, — 2015, 2016, 2017)

2. Italian Grand Prix: 87 points (best finish: 1st — 2021)

3. Belgian Grand Prix: 86 points (best finish: 1st — 2014)

4. Monaco Grand Prix: 85 points (best finish: 1st — 2018)

5. British Grand Prix: 79 points (best finish: 3rd — 2014)

Winning circuits

1. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Canada (2014)

2. Hungaroring, Hungary (2014)

3. Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (2014)