Last Updated on October 6 2024, 2:46 pm

Daniel Ricciardo was denied a big Formula One farewell last time out in Singapore as just four days after the race in the City State, Red Bull announced he was axed and being replaced by Liam Lawson for the last six races of this year.

Red Bull have been heavily criticised over their handling of the matter with Ricciardo appearing to have no idea of what was to befall him while he performed his media duties prior to the track sessions.

Dr. Helmut Marko admitted after the Grand Prix in Singapore that Ricciardo had been told on Sunday morning and from thereon his demeanour changed visibly. “[The timing] was related to a variety of factors and obligations,”Marko told Motorsport Total. “He was informed, and the worthy farewell performance was, I think, the fastest lap.”

 

 

 

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The Australian won eight Grand Prix during his career and they were hard earned given he was never driving the best car. Valtteri Bottas by comparison won ten Grand Prix while with Mercedes, but each of those victories was in a year when the silver arrows won the F1 contractors’ title.

As if to add insult to injury, Christian Horner since announcing Ricciardo’s sacking from Red Bull told the Beyond the grid podcast he would advise Alpine to pursue Daniel, something he would do if he were in their position.

“I think I probably would (go with Ricciardo) to be honest with you,” he said. “They obviously know him from a couple of seasons ago and he was very together during his last season there, scoring podiums, and I think he’s the type of guy that, I think you could rebuild him.”

Horner refers to Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull after the 2018 season and taker up an offer from Renault who were then a works team. The Red Bull team boss has previously questioned whether the Aussie made the right choice to leave his drive alongside Max Verstappen, with dr. Marko also suggesting that Ricciardo didn’t have the stomach for the fight with his Dutch counterpart.

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Older F1 drivers struggle to adapt 

‘”It’s obviously not been a great experience for him (at McLaren) for whatever reason but you just have to think back to some of the drives that he did for us, some of the wins he had, the podiums, some of the stunning overtakes he was capable of … that’s still in there I’m sure, he just needs a bit of a reset,” Horner continued.

One theory is the older drivers (Alonso the exception to the rule) don’t adapt as well to big changes in F1 car design. Sebastian Vettel came off a run of four consecutive driver championships when he was pitted against Daniel Ricciardo as a team mate.

Of course the Red Bull/Renault partnership did not produce the fastest car for the new hybrid era in 2014 and Ricciardo beat Vettel that season three races to zero. Sebastian then left for Ferrari,  but was never the driver he was between 2010-14.

Lewis Hamilton too has struggled since the advent of the ground effect cars for the 2022 season. The once master of the single lap has been trounced in qualifying by his team mate with this year’s current tally 13-5. Hamilton leads Russell in the drivers championship by 19 points, but this includes a 32 point swing in Hamilton’s favour when Russell was disqualified for having an underweight car come the end of the Grand Prix in Belgium.

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Vettel never enjoyed the V6 turbo

Ricciardo too may be a victim of the new ground effect cars given he joined McLaren after relative success at Renault, but in 2022 he was no where near Lando Norris his team mate. Christian Horner supports the theory of diminished adaptability in older drivers when speaking to the F1 Nation podcast he claimed.

“When you get to Formula 1, you’re getting a huge amount of information because you’ve got everybody analysing how hard you hit the brake, where you brake, when you brake, your style, your positioning, the energy that you’re putting through the tyre – all of those elements,” he said.

Horner notes how Ricciardo jumped in the car alongside Vettel and adapted “very quickly. Maybe because they’re not spoiled by other preconceptions of how a car should be, they just adapt and drive the thing quickly, which was exactly what Daniel did back in 2014 – we’d gone from obviously the V8s to the V6s and the car that year had a different characteristic. All the exhaust blowing had gone and so on, which made the car a little more nervous on entry.”

Yet regardless of the Ricciardo-Red Bull post mortem, the folks in the USA love Daniel Ricciardo and if USGP race promoter gets his way, the honey badger will be in Austin, Texas in two weekends time and if so – he’ll be the start of the show.

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COTA boss calls on Ricciardo to appear

“Daniel, he may be able to have just as big an impact out of the car as he has in it at our grand prix,” said Bobby Epstein. “I’m not sure that necessarily people are buying tickets to come see him race if he’s not in a competitive car, right?

“So if you’re coming because he’s part of the F1 community, I think he can still be part of the F1 community in a pretty meaningful way. He’s really, really loved in Texas, and I think he likes it here.”

Well renown for his appreciation of American culture, the Australian took his admiration to a whole new level ahead of the 2022 US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Decked in a Stars-and-Stripes jacket and Stetson hat, Ricciardo rode a horse into the pit lane as country singer Rob Baird sang his appropriately titled ‘Dreams and Gasoline.’

“And so I would hope that he makes himself available more to the fans than he would otherwise be if he had an obligation in the car. I hope he’s still coming here, because we’ve got a lot of people who would love to shake his hand or get his autograph or take a picture. Just see him around town. We’ll keep him busy,” Epstein concludes.

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Coulthard calls Daniel’s PR a “masterstroke”

David Coulthard suggests Ricciardo had the opportunity to say good bye in Singapore, but for some unexplained reason chose not to. The Channel 4 presenter muses that Ricciardo may have not wanted the distraction – then again maybe it was “some sort of media masterstroke, which will just gain even more mileage when I imagine he will or should turn up in Austin and Vegas. He’s big in America.

“[Those are] two great opportunities for him to get a lot of airtime and make it all about him, where maybe it would have been mixed into a Grand Prix weekend in Singapore.”

Daniel Ricciardo will have had three weeks to lick his wounds since being dumped by Red Bull. If he wants a proper send off in style then he should make his way to Texas, where the fans adore his laid back persona.

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Marko: Perez quick, BUT…

Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko discusses Pérez and Verstappen in an interview – Red Bull Racing’s driver line-up has been one of the most talked about topics in Formula One in recent months. Speculation surrounding the future of Sergio Pérez and even the possible departure of star driver Max Verstappen has sparked heated discussions in the paddock.

In an interview with the German press, Red Bull’s long-serving motorsport consultant Helmut Marko gives his insight into the current situation and explains why both scenarios, Pérez’s release and Verstappen’s exit, could theoretically unfold… READ MORE