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Speedcafe can reveal Ricciardo will not see out the 2024 F1 season with RB, with Liam Lawson expected to be announced in his place.
The news of Ricciardo’s departure was subsequently shared on social media by the team.
Thank you Daniel 💙
⁰Laurent Mekies on Daniel: “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.”#F1 #VCARB pic.twitter.com/cqKrbFAehU— Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (@visacashapprb) September 26, 2024
It ends a career that began in 2011 with HRT and has netted eight grand prix wins: seven for Red Bull Racing and one for McLaren.
Ricciardo’s most recent success came at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, a victory that in many respects came against the tide in what was the first of two troubled years with McLaren.
That event marked the last time Ricciardo appeared on an F1 podium.
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The West Australian burst onto the scenes in 2011 as the next driver off the Red Bull production line behind Sebastian Vettel.
Paired with the four-time world champion in 2014, he won three times while his more highly credentialled team-mate went winless.
Ricciardo finished third in that year’s drivers’ championship, the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race.
He was third again in 2016, falling agonisingly short of victory on Monaco after a pit stop mistake by the team.
A superb drive around the streets of the Principality in 2018 made amends for that in what proved to be his seventh and final victory for Red Bull Racing.
At the end of the season, he elected to leave the team for Renault as the Milton Keynes squad began to mould itself around Max Verstappen.
Following a slow start to the relationship in Enstone, better results began to flow in the latter half of 2019 before Ricciardo sensationally announced he’d switch to McLaren for 2021 ahead of the 2020 season starting.
Ricciardo never gelled with McLaren, and while he netted victory in Monza, it proved a frustrating two years for all involved and ultimately ended with the squad terminating his contract a year early.
Left on the sidelines, the Australian rejoined Red Bull Racing as a third driver, a move he hoped would rebuild his confidence and perhaps afford him an opportunity to return to a front-running car.
And that did materialise.
Promoted in place of Nyck de Vries last season at AlphaTauri, it was expected that Ricciardo would put manners on team-mate Yuki Tsunoda this year.
When that didn’t happen, pressure quickly mounted on the 35-year-old, with unfounded claims that he could be axed for the Miami Grand Prix.
His performances improved as the season wore on, and though he was in contention to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing during the mid-season break, he was never a standout performer.
When it was decided to retain the Mexican alongside Max Verstappen, Ricciardo’s fate was effectively sealed; with evidently no future at Red Bull Racing and Lawson waiting in the wings, his position within the organisation made little sense.
Last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix was therefore a solemn and arguably ill-fitting conclusion a glittering career.
A world beater on his day, Ricciardo ultimately found himself in the right place at the wrong time.
His best years were spent in a car that was no match for the all-conquering Mercedes’ of the mid-2010s before his overlapping with Max Verstappen’s generational talent.
He will be remembered as a tenacious competitor, a fearless overtaker and one of the best on the brakes in F1.
Ricciardo retires from Formula 1 after 258 events (257 starts), eight wins, 32 podiums, three pole positions, and 17 fastest laps.
While he may not have enjoyed the last hurrah he, or many, may have hoped for, he bows out with a career far more successful than most.
