As Daniel Ricciardo Exits F1, We look back at the Aussie's Racing Career

Daniel Ricciardo's time as a Formula One driver is over. The popular Australian's career officially came to a stuttering, low-key stop following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix with a social media post confirming what had become expected news since the chequered flag at Marina Bay.

The saga of Ricciardo, a race-winning F1 racer, leaving the sport has felt like a drawn-out process over the past two years and not fitting the caliber he once was. Yet, the days of shoe-drinking celebrations seem long ago, and Ricciardo waving goodbye somewhat anonymously and out of the spotlight seems apt for his later seasons. How did it come to this?

Say what you want about Ricciardo's spotty post-Red Bull Racing career. There's no denying the so-called Honey Badger was pure box office in his early years. An eight-time Grand Prix winner, the Perth-born racer established a reputation for brave, late-braking overtakes and hard-fought victories.

Driving against the might of Mercedes at their full power, Ricciardo's triumphs over the often unstoppable Silver Arrows ended up being some of the best races of each season.

F1 Debutant Daniel Ricciardo

Debuting with the short-lived Hispania/HRT team midway through 2011 to replace Narain Karthikeyan, Ricciardo graduated to Toro Rosso for the 2012 season. The Red Bull backing had arrived years earlier in 2008, and the step to the pinnacle of motorsport was a culmination of his efforts in the junior series.

Sebastian Vettel and Ricciardo's Aussie compatriot Mark Webber locked out the top seats at Red Bull Racing, with the pair helping the team to four Drivers' and Constructors' championships. But Webber's retirement at the end of 2013 opened the door for this young hotshot driver to swap occasional point-scoring midfield Sundays for the sharp end.

Ricciardo immediately repaid the faith by taking his new Red Bull car to the podium in his home race at the Australian GP. He had similar success with a point-scoring Toro Rosso debut when he started the 2012 season. However, this was a signal of intent that he had what it took to compete with the sport's best.

The podium celebrations proved premature after the FIA disqualified Ricciardo for issues with his car's fuel flow sensor. Yet he stood above the Melbourne masses, who saw him as their new hero after Webber's departure.

It seems long ago, but the Aussie audience spent years watching their previous hope, Webber, losing to Vettel. Despite Red Bull's half-decade of competitiveness and Webber's 41 podiums with the team, he never gave his home crowd a podium trip to cheer.

Irrespective of the later disqualification, here was Ricciardo stepping up, literally, on his first attempt. The dream continued throughout 2014 with triumphs in Canada, Hungary, and Belgium. Vettel, the then-reigning four-time champion Ricciardo shared the garage with, took no victories that year and promptly left the team to join Ferrari.

The Rise of Ricciardo

Ricciardo had transformed the Red Bull powerhouse into his team in a single season. His heart-on-sleeve emotions, upbeat personality, and brilliantly brave overtaking style earned him a lot of fans in the Milton Keynes headquarters, not to mention across F1's viewership around the globe.

Although Mercedes were the dominant force, Ricciardo's Red Bull team stole wins when strategy allowed, and the pairing brought back some 29 items of silverware in their time together.

Among the highlights was a frantic Chinese GP win in the 2018 season, with Ricciardo starting from P6 but making the most of a mid-race Safety Car to use fresh tires for an overtaking masterclass.

There was also the redemption arc of Red Bull's disastrous 2016 Monaco GP pit stop that lost the team victory in Monte Carlo. Ricciardo battled through a power loss and two unavailable gears for 50 laps two years later to win the Jewel in the Crown event to much adulation.

Even better for the racer to look back on in years to come from that Monte Carlo masterclass was Netflix's cameras covering all the action. Drive to Survive didn't have access to Mercedes or Ferrari in its first season of filming, leaving Red Bull as the solitary 'big' team to cover.

Ricciardo's charisma made him an obvious choice to focus on, and he became the defacto protagonist from the first episode. The Monaco win cemented the idea that he was the unlucky, capable underdog to many of the sport's newcomers. Nobody knew that race would be his final podium trip in Red Bull colors, though.

Leaving the Bulls behind

Now sharing his pit box with Verstappen, Red Bull's latest in-house prodigy, Ricciardo's confidence seemed to falter. Although he was a teenager, Verstappen's natural ability to push a car past its performance capabilities altered the driver dynamic at the team.

After beating Vettel and then Daniil Kvyat, Ricciardo suddenly wasn't the default team leader with this Dutch wonderkid alongside him. The two collided in the 2018 Azerbaijan GP. That flashpoint, plus some awful car reliability in 2018, led Ricciardo to drop the shocking news he would depart for Renault for the 2019 season.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it's clear that the decision to step away was the wrong call. Ricciardo's gamble dropped him from the win-contending limelight to midfield obscurity. Like Alpine still is today, Renault was in a period of long-term rebuilding, and Ricciardo knew he wasn't joining a team that'd immediately be contending at the front.

Nonetheless, he brought the French organization their first podium since 2011 in their second season together at the 2020 Eifel GP – a feat he repeated two races later in Imola.

Ex-teammate Vettel turned the pandemic-affected 2020 season into a driver market merry-go-round before racing got underway after Ferrari announced the German would leave Maranello. Ricciardo believed moving to McLaren would bring him closer to his title-chasing dreams than remaining at Renault.

Although he secured one final win in the 2021 Italian GP with a McLaren car, the switch would become the terminal wound in his already faltering career. Now facing up against Norris, McLaren's home-grown version of Red Bull's Verstappen, Ricciardo needed to show he still had pace to compete against the sport's changing of the guard.

Norris comfortably kept Ricciardo at bay in their two-year stint together. The young Briton routinely outqualified and outperformed his more experienced teammate, outscoring him by 45 points in 2021 and then by 85 points in 2022.

The damage to Ricciardo's once-stellar reputation was evident when McLaren curtailed his contract, and no other team stepped forward to snap up someone who was once F1's hottest property. That his replacement, fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri, fared so much better against Norris than Ricciardo did, despite having 230 fewer races under his belt, didn't help Ricciardo's case.

A long goodbye

A swansong back where his career started at the rebranded Toro Rosso came in 2023. Replacing Nyck de Vries in a midseason swap at AlphaTauri lasted two races before an injury forced Ricciardo to miss five rounds. Ironically, that recovery time away allowed F1 rookie Liam Lawson to show what he could do, and the Kiwi driver is now the driver replacing Ricciardo in 2024.

The 14-month spell at AlphaTauri/VCARB was Ricciardo's last chance to show he might still have the speed to step back up at Red Bull. Instead, his middling results confirmed he could not perform at the level he once could. It's a shame that Ricciardo's final F1 years seemed more akin to a family keeping a lame guard dog alive for the love of having it around rather than serving its original purpose.

The writing has been on the wall since Ricciardo couldn't keep up at McLaren, yet he limped on for three more seasons.

Nonetheless, as we say goodbye to one of the sport's most beloved characters during a period where F1's long-time prospects are finally reaching the top, let's remember that Ricciardo was once like them, too. And as he bows out, he still has more wins than Norris, Russell, and Leclerc. That's a lot of shoey celebrations. That's what I'll remember Ricciardo for, and so should you.