Daniel Ricardo said a true parting to F1, rather than a clumsy outing in Singapore.
There was no way to end the Formula 1 Career Daniel Ricardo.
Grid.instead, he stayed in lymbo. In order to deal with the great promotion of Singapore on Sunday the last, as unofficially, its last subsidy, without any closure or decision to return to Austin next month.
We expect his last goodbye to F1 Paddock when Red Bull confirmed his departure. This ended what turned into a decision of Schredvider’s driver: Riccardo left and had not yet left. Riccardo’s emotions on Sunday have clearly indicated what should happen.
However, he was properly deprived of the opportunity to say goodbye to F1. All of these were performed at the asterisk. Through media sessions in Singapore on Thursday, Ricardo has speculated that it can be replaced from the next race with Red Bull’s spare pilot, Liam Lawson. But he seemed more worried about 2025 than the rest of the season.
He did not appear to seriously consider this to be his last Formula 1 race. On Saturday, as Ricciardo digested his Q1 exit, which left him 16th on the grid while RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda advanced to Q3, his tone and body language suggested a change had taken place.
What was a possibility is now a fact. He tried hard to enjoy every moment of Sunday, knowing that this may be his last race in F1. He took a little extra time to sit in the car before setting off after the chequered flag. It’s been his home for more than a decade. “The cockpit is something I’ve gotten used to over the years,” an emotional Ricciardo said after the race, fighting back tears in an interview with F1 TV.
“I just wanted to enjoy the moment.” Ricciardo may no longer be the same Grand Prix driver he was at Red Bull. The man who burst onto the scene in 2014 and quickly eclipsed the then four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, or the man who created magic on the streets of Monaco in 2018, redeeming himself for a heartbreaking defeat two years earlier. Or who put up a genuine challenge to Max Verstappen, now recognized as an F1 great, in their time as teammates.But he deserved so much better than this protracted, awkward exit that ended up dragging out into a situation where there were zero winners.
Even as Ricciardo spoke like a man who’d raced for the final time in F1 on Sunday, the official line from Red Bull and RB was that no decision had been taken. The only acknowledgement of the potential change in driver lineup came in RB’s post-race press release when, in explaining the decision to pit Ricciardo for the fast lap late on, team principal Laurent Mekies noted it “may have been Daniel’s last race.”
Red Bull F1 chief Christian Horner said on Sunday that the break before Austin was a chance to review the driver performances across Red Bull’s two teams, and that Ricciardo was “just one part of the jigsaw.”
