Daniel Ricciardo grateful Red Bull made retirement decision he could not

Daniel Ricciardo is “grateful” that Racing Bulls replaced him in late 2024, because it would’ve been difficult to make that call himself.

From Red Bull to Renault to McLaren, Ricciardo made some difficult decisions during his Formula 1 career. Every one, though, he believed was the right move.

Daniel Ricciardo reflects on F1 exit decision

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Having begun his career under the Red Bull banner, Ricciardo won seven grands prix as a senior driver but left Red Bull Racing after the 2018 season due to what he perceived as unfair treatment of his new hot-shot teammate Max Verstappen.

He signed with Renault, but even one year into that two -year-deal, had already committed to McLaren. That, though, also didn’t go to plan, and two years into his three-year McLaren deal, Ricciardo left the team.

He returned to Red Bull licking his wounds, with then team boss Christian Horner saying he “did not recognise” Ricciardo’s driving style with all the “bad habits” the Australian had picked up at McLaren.

But believing in its former driver, Red Bull gave Ricciardo one last chance – a seat at junior team Racing Bulls.

In the car for eight races, his return hampered by a hand injury at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, he was retained for 2024 before the team realised his time was over.

It was a decision that Red Bull and Racing Bulls made.

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In hindsight, Ricciardo recognises he probably wouldn’t have hit the stop button himself.

“Ultimately, I got let go,” told Ford CEO Jim Farley’s podcast. “That was the reality at the time.

“I think once that happened, I’d been let go twice in the last two years, and it had also taken a lot out of me.

“I’d put a lot of my soul into it. I was pretty exhausted by it.

“In reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me. I think it would have been hard to be like, ‘I’m done.’

“I think I knew I was probably done because I knew it was harder for me to perform at the level I could,” he said.

“For whatever reason, I lost a little bit of something, and it’s okay to admit it.”

Walking out of the Singapore paddock that night, the last driver to leave, Ricciardo conceded that there are some who love you and will tell you to keep pushing, but that at some point you have to be honest with yourself.

He was honest that Sunday night.

“There’s people that love you and will still tell you that you’re great and you can do it, but as much as you love them as well, you need to just close the door and make that decision on your own and be really honest with yourself,” he said.

“If I would have got to the end of last year, I think I would have still had a lot of these thoughts and had had the conversation with myself, because I knew it was becoming harder for me, and I had to dig really deep to pull out a result that I was proud of.

“You always want to believe everyone’s looking out for you, and they probably still are, but they don’t know what it’s like to be you and in your situation.

“Last year, my retirement year, I gave myself a lot of time to just reflect on my career and to be at peace with it.”

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