For a little while during Singapore’s race weekend – It seemed like the only person who didn’t truly know, was the person on the other side of the TV screen or PC monitor. For some, it was the certainty of hope extinguishing, for others, it was the sudden shock that it was the end.
On the outside looking in, Singapore was so strange. A leak out of the Red Bull camp made it seem like Daniel Ricciardo was suddenly in his final F1 weekend. With Logan Sargeant replaced for Franco Colapinto just two races earlier, I was genuinely surprised to hear about another mid-season culling, even more so in this case because at least with Sargeant, you could make a much more compelling case he wasn’t good enough at that level to justify his place.
The nature of my job as an Autosport production coordinator is you get a lot of general chat, and the pundits and journos I’m fortunate to be around seemed a lot more sure about the situation, and I couldn’t understand why. RB has been a messy team since the European rounds started, their upgrades have been poor, their strategy has been poor and it’s had a knock-on effect on the drivers. They’ve scored one point since the Summer Break, and are now under pressure from Haas after Nico Hulkenberg’s excellent ninth that same weekend has put them only three points behind.
Ever since Daniel pushed for a new chassis, he’s been roughly on par with Yuki Tsunoda by most metrics, this didn’t feel like a mid-season culling based on performance, it was more based on Liam Lawson getting as much seat time as possible for the future.
As yesterday’s confirmation still settles amongst the sport, the real story confirms a lot of what we knew. According to RaceFans, Lawson knew two weeks ago that this was coming. In an interview with my colleagues at Autosport, Helmut Marko cited the general sentiment that they felt like Ricciardo had lost a lot of his “killer instinct” and speed that he had in 2018, and that he was told he had to blow Tsunoda away to fulfil his main goal of getting back in the factory seat and being Max Verstappen’s teammate again. In any level, he’s failed that goal, and if that was the whole reason you were brought back over Nyck De Vries in 2023, there’s little point in running him going forward. Lawson’s your bet for the future, you might as well give him the seat time. It’s harsh, but it makes sense.
I don’t know how much of the killer instinct talk I buy. Yuki has massively improved in the last two years, and Red Bull’s lack of faith in him has compounded their driver issues. Every career decision Ricciardo made had logic behind it. He didn’t want to be Max’s #2 and Renault made a life-changing offer. His first year there was bad, and he committed to a McLaren team back on the rise but got caught out by Lando Norris’ quality and a car that many have said is weird to drive. I suspect part of Norris’ and Piastri’s brilliance there is that McLaren is all they’ve known as F1 cars. And of course with Red Bull’s lineups so unstable since 2023, why wouldn’t you believe you had a shot to come back?
The aftermath has me split very much down the middle because so many of my colleagues and fans in this industry have cited the same angle of – “He deserved a sendoff”, and I’m conflicted on that narrative.
Have we as fans been groomed into thinking that this isn’t how the story is supposed to end? Sebastian Vettel got the greatest send-off this sport has ever seen as a universally respected and liked ambassador for the sport and beyond. Michael Schumacher got two of them at Ferrari and Mercedes. Fernando Alonso got doughnuts on the way out the first time. So did Kimi Raikkonen. Hell, the timing of Felipe Massa crashing out in what we thought was his last race led to that beautiful scene when he hugged his family as his Williams and Ferrari families gave him a standing ovation.
The outpouring of love and support for Ricciardo has been lovely to see. From the majority of the paddock, the teams he drove for, the journalists he warmed to, and of course, the fans he’s gained over the last 12 years. And he’s had an outstanding career by any measure. Eight wins with two different teams, 32 podiums and 10th on the all-time appearances list via the 250 club. Only 36 men in history have more. Six World Champions have less. He’s probably the best driver this century who never had a genuine shot at a title.
Beyond the numbers, he was a fearless, brave and superb overtaker who produced entertainment and highlight reel moments across his career in spades. The first win at Canada 2014, winning at Monaco with a damaged power unit, the 1-2 finish at Monza the bright spot of a tough time at McLaren. Ricciardo brought the entertainment on and off the track. I’ve said before, that he’s been the biggest winner of the DTS explosion given how often he was featured, and it’s no surprise people have gotten behind him, and wanted the best for him.
On the other side of the coin – generally speaking, most athletes go out sad. It’s the nature of elite sport, it’s always moving faster than you can, especially when you’re in your Mid-30s and beyond. Football’s Raphael Varane, one of the best defenders of his generation, just retired from football at Age 31, one of the biggest speakers about the rising amount of football in the game and how it’s leading to more injuries and shorter careers as players are now playing 60-70 games a year. Man City’s Rodri did the same mere days before tearing his ACL in a league-winning, European Championship campaign.
@PutDorianeDown on X rightly mentioned to me that in cricket, Jimmy Anderson, still one of England’s best fast bowlers; even as he enters his 43rd year of life, had to be forced into retirement with coach Brendon McCullum focusing on younger bowlers and preparing for an Ashes series in 18 months. The difference was though, the public knew long in advance so fans could mentally prepare, and Lords’ could do the same to give him an amazing, deserved send-off.
As my old friend Ryan Erik King pointed out yesterday, this announcement dropped the same day the NBA’s Derrick Rose retired. One of the most influential basketball players of the 21st Century, an explosive, high-scoring point guard who elevated the Chicago Bulls into believing they could win Championships again for the first time since Michael Jordan’s (second) retirement. Rose didn’t get the luxury of a send-off. Whereas Jordan got three of them AND a Netflix special 17 years later for crying out loud!
Motorsport is a brutal game. This is the second mid-season firing of 2024, and I was the same person in Baku who argued it should have been a third with Kevin Magnussen and Ollie Bearman at Haas. Most athletes don’t get that Kobe Bryant-esque happy ending and can leave on their terms. Whether it be by team management, injury, results, or sometimes worse still.
Red Bull had the opportunity to do that but elected not to, instead dealing in vague half-baked fastest lap gestures and pillow talk about “maybes” and “later assessments” alongside a small guard of honour from his guests who knew more than we did watching at the time, as Sky Sports desperately scrambled on Sunday to put some highlight reels together to give the man the flowers that RB could only manage via their social media pages four days later. If you’re a Ricciardo fan, I can understand the emotional frustration.
If you’re Red Bull, you had a golden opportunity to at least give the fans some goodwill on the way out, and you blew it, which has led to the salt tossed out on socials – A crying shame that Liam Lawson and RB’s social admins, who have done nothing wrong are left to clean up the mess their senior management has made. I don’t care if you think those social teams are above it, someone still had to read that shit and I promise you, no one wants to do that. Let’s practise some empathy where we can – Lawson’s dream doesn’t deserve to be shat on, and doing so isn’t going to bring Ricciardo back.
The whole thing is saddening when it shouldn’t be. I know for damn sure Daniel didn’t want to go out like this. As I said before, this is a man who made his career out of opportunity, excitement, bravery and the lack of a fear of failure. And it was that same ambition that ultimately led to his downfall, and ironically, a sad and lonely end to his career. All of this felt so avoidable. F1’s most exciting driver of the modern age was extinguished by an 18th-placed, fastest-lap attempt that only exposed how broken that gimmicked point is, and understandably irked McLaren as one last “F-U” on the way out. That at least, seems very Ricciardo.
Thanks for the memories, Honey Badger. It was a pleasure to watch you work. Just stay off Barstool if you go down the media path, okay?
