The Formula One career of 8-time Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo looks to have come to a close. RB F1 has confirmed that the Australian will step aside as Liam Lawson is going to take over for the remainder of the 2024 season, starting at the United States Grand Prix next month.
Pit Debrief learned from a source on the Saturday of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that Lawson would be announced after the Singapore GP, and it has come true.
Following McLaren’s decision to cut ties with him at the end of 2022 after two difficult seasons with the team — despite helping them end a 9-year wait for victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix — Red Bull Racing gave him a second chance as they sacked Nyck de Vries and put Ricciardo in the AlphaTauri at the Hungarian GP.
The comeback was briefly paused following a nasty injury picked up at the Dutch Grand Prix in the first race after the summer break.
Since partnering Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese driver has outscored the driver from Perth by 37 points to 18. At the start of 2024, the 24-year-old came out of the traps very quickly, taking an early 7-1 lead in the qualifying head-to-head.
As the season went on, however, Ricciardo improved on a Saturday. It was 6-12 in qualifying following the Singapore Grand Prix.
From the beginning of the campaign, Ricciardo had shown very strong race. As RB has regressed since a very strong start to 2024, points have been hard to come by, meaning his best spell came when the car was not quite as good.
Ultimately, Red Bull decided it was not enough to convince them he should see out the season. Ricciardo’s number one goal had been to return to the Milton Keynes-based squad.
The sport saw the very best of him between 2014 and 2020 as he excelled at Red Bull Racing and Renault, consistently proving himself to be one of the best on the grid, beating bothSebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen over the course of a season.
In his first season at Red Bull Racing in 2014 following promotion from Toro Rosso, he took his first Grand Prix win in Canada as he overtook a limping Nico Rosberg in the closing laps. He backed it up with superb victories in Hungary and at Spa.
Five more wins followed: Malaysia 2016, Baku 2017, China 2018, Monaco 2018, and Monza in 2021, taking him to eight overall in his F1 career.
His best result in the Drivers’ Championship came in 2014 and 2016 as he finished P3 behind the dominant Mercedes cars and duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
His 257th and likely final start in Singapore on Sunday saw the Australian take the fastest lap on his swansong. It was the seventeenth of his career. Ricciardo was understandably extremely emotional post-race.
