Daniel Ricciardo, a Formula One fan-favorite driver, has announced his departure from racing. Visa Cash App RB F1 Team announced that the 35-year-old Australian driver would be replaced for the rest of the season by 22-year-old Liam Lawson, from New Zealand. Ricciardo leaves Formula One with eight wins, 32 podiums, 17 fastest laps and 1329 points across 258 Grand Prix.
Ricciardo was born in Perth, Australia, on July 1, 1999. He graduated from kart racing to Junior Formula in 2005 and continued moving up in the racing world. In 2008, Ricciardo won the first championship of his career with French auto racing team SG Formula at the Formula Renault 2.0 West European Cup.In 2009, Ricciardo debuted as a Red Bull test driver, the third driver who does not compete but assists with car development. Two years later, Ricciardo earned a full-time seat at Red Bull’s second Formula One team, the Scuderia Toro Rosso racing team.
In 2014, he was promoted to Red Bull’s first team, where he placed third in the championship and won the Canadian Grand Prix. Ricciardo later returned to the podium in 2016 at the Malaysian Grand Prix. He continued to win for Red Bull in Azerbaijan, China and Monaco in the following seasons.
After his time with Red Bull, Ricciardo signed on with the French automobile group Renault in 2019 and continued to earn podiums. However, after joining McLaren in 2021, many fans regarded his decision as one of the worst in his career. His only win, and podium, at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is the highlight from his time with the team. Ricciardo left Mclaren at the end of the 2022 season and re-joined the Red Bull family as a reserve driver at the beginning of 2023.
From the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix onwards, Ricciardo replaced Nyck de Vries at Scuderia AlphaTauri, re-signing for their 2024 campaign as Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team. But in 2024 following the Singapore Grand Prix, Lawson replaced Ricciardo.
This past year, Ricciardo aimed to make it back to VCARB’s sister team, the prestigious Oracle Red Bull Racing. However, circumstances in the past few months meant that he would not only be unable to rejoin Red Bull but that his time in F1 was ending.
The Grand Prix at Singapore was Ricciardo’s final weekend racing in F1. VCARB released him, and Lawson replaced him for the remainder of the season.
This is because the form was “simply not good enough,” as Red Bull’s advisor, Helmut Marko, alluded to in an interview.
Despite these disappointing events, Ricciardo is leaving F1 with his head held high. Many of his fans are heartbroken that he most likely will not be returning to racing, but lately, they have been sharing their favorite career highlights of Ricciardo on social media platforms.
One of these highlights includes Riccardo’s infamous “Shoey Celebrations,” during which he was known for taking his racing shoe and drinking champagne from it after winning a podium. This is an Australian tradition that Ricciardo brought over to F1.
Several F1 drivers have posted on Instagram, highlighting their favorite moments with Ricciardo.
One of these drivers, Charles Leclerc, a Formula One driver for Scuderia Ferrari HP, posted a video of one of Ricciardo’s famous post-race celebrations. The caption read, “the one and only @danielricciardo, You’ll be missed in the paddock mate. Good luck with everything.”
Lewis Hamilton, a Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team driver, also posted about one of Ricciardo’s infamous “Shoey Celebrations,” where Hamilton had also been encouraged to participate.
“[I]t’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.”
In addition to other drivers’ opinions of Ricciardo’s departure, fans are also very disappointed by the turnout.
Sophomore Sasha Schooling, when asked about the situation, noted, “I am very sad about it all. Daniel Ricciardo was one of the happiest racers in F1. I feel like it was his time, though. His performance last year was definitely not his best and I hope he stays in the racing scene.”
Sophomore Nadia Lall also wanted to share her opinions on Ricciardo’s departure:
“I feel really bad for Ricciardo. It just wasn’t his season. He had a couple chances and didn’t perform the way he liked.”
Despite Ricciardo’s abrupt departure, fans have taken to the internet expressing their hopes that he will remain in the Formula One and general motorsport communities.
