Successful career at the end?
Formula 1 long-running favorite Ricciardo is now rid of his cockpit
September 26, 2024, 9:45 p.m
The driver change had been announced, now it is official: Daniel Ricciardo is leaving the Racing Bulls team and will be replaced by the young New Zealander Liam Lawson in the next race. For the 35-year-old Ricciardo it could mean the end of his long Formula 1 career.
The Australian Daniel Ricciardo has now officially given up his place in Formula 1 and is therefore approaching the end of his long career in the premier class. On Thursday, the Racing Bulls racing team announced what was already an open secret around the last Grand Prix weekend in Singapore: Ricciardo will be swapped for 22-year-old Liam Lawson during the current season. The New Zealander is already behind the wheel at the upcoming race in Austin (October 20th).
“Thank you, Daniel,” said the sister team of the world champion racing team Red Bull Racing on social media on Thursday afternoon. Team boss Laurent Mekies had words of praise when he said goodbye: “He brought a lot of experience, talent and a fantastic attitude to the team. This helped everyone to develop further and strengthened the close team spirit.”
Ricciardo, now 35 years old, made his debut in Formula 1 in 2011 and has competed in 257 races to date – with this number he is in tenth place on the all-time list of the premier class. After his promotion to Red Bull in 2014, he overshadowed Sebastian Vettel and finished third in the World Cup twice (2014, 2016). But it didn’t go any higher, and that also had to do with unfortunate team changes. He achieved eight race victories in his career. Most recently at Racing Bulls he lost the team duel with Yuki Tsunoda too often, and Red Bull also wanted to finally offer the talented Lawson a regular cockpit.
It is unlikely that Ricciardo will get another chance in Formula 1 in the future. The Australian’s farewell in Singapore was unusual in many respects. The news was already out in the world, Ricciardo seemed touched after the race, but was not allowed to confirm anything because Red Bull did not want to comment yet. Remarkable things had also happened on the route. Ricciardo, although not officially part of the world championship team, clearly supported the defending champion Max Verstappen: At the end of the field, he got new tires late in order to set the fastest lap of the race. In doing so, he stole another point from McLaren driver Lando Norris, which he could have urgently needed in his race to catch up with Verstappen.
