Last Updated on September 11 2024, 12:33 am

Daniel Ricciardo may well be leaving Formula One at the end of the season with a paddock insider suggesting the news is imminent. The likeable Aussie seems to have lost his way since leaving Red Bull in 2018.

Then two years with Renault (now Alpine) saw him partner first with Nico Hulkenberg then in 2021 it was Esteban Ocon who replaced the German driver. Ricciardo finished ahead of his team mate Hulkenberg and again even more comprehensively against Ocon scoring almost double the Frenchman’s points.

McLaren then came calling and the same vision presented to Lando Norris persuaded the ‘honey badger’ that McLaren were on the up. The development curve of the team was slow yet despite this Lando Norris came out on top in the battle of the team mates in 2021. Yet Riccardo contributed to the Woking based team finishing the session fourth in the constructors’ championship.

 

 

 

Ricciardo RB return a flop

2022 was a whole different matter for the Aussie who had a nightmare with the handling of the McLaren. Come the end of the year Daniel had scored less than a third of the points of Norris and Zak Brown brought down the curtain on Ricciardo’s three year deal.

Red Bull Racing snapped up Daniel as their reserve driver and as Christian Horner always intended replaced Nyck de Vries two races before the summer break and Ricciardo was back on the grid again.

Yet a crash during practice in Zandvoort saw Daniel miss the next five Grand Prix and his stand in Liam Lawson impressed. He finished ahead of Yuki Tsundao in their first four outings together and the Japanese drivers’ only minor victory was a P15 in their final race together while Lawson came home two places further back after a so-so race.

Ricciardo failed to return to Alpha Tauri in sparkling form although he finished ahead of Yuki in three of the remaining Grand Prix of the season and scored the team’s only points in that time with a P7 in Mexico. This year the newly branded Racing Bulls have struggled, but Tsunoda is firmly on top with 22 points currently twelfth in the drivers standings while Ricciardo one place back has just 12 points from sixteen rounds and rumours have it his time is almost up at the Red Bull sister team.

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Daniel hopeful of replacing Perez

Red Bull have not been their usual selves this year. In an attempt ton head of the annual F1 reporting that Perez is getting the sack, the team awarded him an early contract for next season despite the fact his results are woeful when compared to the other top team drivers.

Ricciardo believed Perez might be moved on during the summer break and said he “left my phone on” during the month of August. Yet the call never came for him to replace the Mexican driver and regain the seat he gave up back in 2018.

The world champions in fact announced just days after the summer break began that Perez would be in the Red Bull car when F1 returned to Zandvoort and beyond, the reason being: “I think that we know what Checo is capable of”, said Horner in the Netherlands.

“We know that at the beginning of the year, he was scoring, what, four podiums in five races. And if we can get him back into… I think he’s just had a lack of confidence and has ended up in a bit of a spiral.”

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Ricciardo only RB driver with no contract

Yet the key to the decision lay in the fact Sergio has done well in places like Azerbaijan and Singapore and as Horner explained: “We know that there’s tracks that he’s won at coming out, we’ve got Azerbaijan, where he’s won both sprint race and grand prix on the same weekend.”

Checo also won in Singapore back in 2022 and has developed the reputation for being ‘King of the street races.’ Yet Perez is without a win since the fourth round of 2023 in Baku and his recent performances suggest he’ll struggle to make the podium this coming weekend.

Ricciardo is the only driver of the four employed by Red Bull to have no contract for 2025 and Ted Kravitz suggests an announcement over this is imminent. The Aussie is aware of the pressure from New Zealander, Lawson but refused to be cowed by the pressure as he told assembled media last time out in Monza.

“I know if I perform then I’m good, so if I focus on myself then it shouldn’t affect me. And that’s what I’m focussing on,” he said at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.

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Ricciardo announcement imminent

Ex-F1 driver and Sky pundit Martin Brundle believes otherwise and according to his sources Ricciardo will be dropped with the announcement just hours away.

He said: “Are we going to have a driver announcement at RB before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a couple of weeks time? We’re all expecting it. Daniel Ricciardo pretty much telegraphed it on Thursday. And is that driver announcement going to be that Liam Lawson will partner Yuki Tsunoda at RB next year? That’s what everybody is expecting.”

With just Sauber amongst the teams to name their driver lineup next year, Ricciardo is not expected to be in the frame for that seat. Valtteri Bottas F1 career may well have been saved, given Carlos Sainz turned down Audi to join Williams and so Sauber/Audi have one remaining spot to fill.

Ricciardo’s ever present humour and huge grin will be a loss to the paddock and has been a favourite amongst new fans attracted to the sport by Netflix mega hit series, ‘Drive to Survive.’

Daniel has won eight Grand Prix in his career and ended a miserable decade long run no wins for McLaren. His race craft showed through in Monza when he ended the drought by winning the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

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The reason Newey left Red Bull finally revealed

Since he announced his Red Bull resignation, Adrian Newey has been front an centre this Formula One season like no other engineer in the history of the sport. He is regarded by many to be the greatest F1 car designer in history with more than 200 Grand Prix wins credited to his creations.

Newey has won twelve constructors’ championships with three different F1 teams and thirteen drivers’ titles with seven different drivers. Yet Adrian has never worked with two of the modern great F1 racers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

On hearing of his Red Bull departure, Lewis Hamilton made a pitch for Newey to join him next year at Ferrari. Speaking ahead of the Miami Grand Prix the seven times champion said: “If I was to do a list of people I would love to work with, he would absolutely be at the top of it… READ MORE