The Singapore Grand Prix was the final Formula 1 race, Daniel Ricciardo participated in, and RB CEO Peter Bayer revealed that the team agreed with the Australian to not communicate his departure.
Ricciardo raced in 257 grands prix in his career and won eight of them. His early departure from RB left the F1 world angry. RB team principal Laurent Mekies admitted that the handling of it was “frustrating” and “not ideal.” He added that there were discussions before Singapore.
Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, Bayer revealed that it wasn’t the team’s idea to not communicate his departure. They agreed with their driver on this matter, as it was his wish.
”We had agreed with Daniel that we wouldn’t communicate it. We knew that it would make us look a bit old as a team. But we also did it to protect the driver. It was his wish,” Bayer told the German outlet. ”He believed until the very end that he would be at the front in qualifying and show everyone. I’ve never seen such mental strength in an athlete. And I’ve been to a lot of sports.”
Ricciardo’s ambition of being at the front in qualifying didn’t go as planned. He was eliminated in the first part of the session, ending up 16th.
“It was a terrible moment when he was eliminated in Q1. You could already hear on the radio that his world had collapsed,” Bayer remembers of how Ricciardo was feeling.
”We then spoke to him again on Saturday. We sat together in our office at two o’clock in the morning and asked him what we should do now. He then told us that we should just let him do the race. He just didn’t want any nonsense.”
The race didn’t go well and Ricciardo finished last of all drivers, who took the chequered flag. At least, the 35-year-old was able to take the fastest lap at the end.
”We stood in front of him as a team. If Daniel had raced until Abu Dhabi, then of course we would have celebrated his farewell with fireworks and a photo on the grid, similar to Räikkönen back then. That’s what everyone would have wanted.”
In the end, Bayer explains that without Red Bull, Ricciardo’s career would have ended after his two seasons at McLaren. He jumped in for Nyck de Vries after ten races in last year’s campaign.
”We gave him another chance that nobody thought was possible,” says Bayer. ”It was important for us to be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and say that we did it right. Even if the whole world and his nine million Instagram fans are beating us up.”
Ricciardo scored a total of 12 points this season. Liam Lawson, who replaced him at a few races last year, took over in Austin. He got 4 points in his pocket already, with three rounds to go.
