F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo is known for his beaming smile, but something was different after qualifying in Singapore. He told the BBC’s Rosanna Tennant it was a “fake smile” and a week later it’s clear why, as news broke on Thursday that he would be leaving Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team (VCARB) for the remainder of the 2024 season.
Liam Lawson, a 22-year-old from New Zealand who drove for VCARB in five races last year when Ricciardo suffered a wrist injury, will return to the team for the last six races of the season. The team has not announced its second driver for 2025, and many speculate that as long as Lawson performs at a similar level to teammate Yuki Tsunoda, the seat will be his.
The team chose to hold the announcement until after the Singapore GP, meaning Ricciardo did not get the send-off many believe he deserved. Former F1 driver and Sky Sports Commentator Martin Brundle is in that camp.
“It was Daniel’s last race in F1 for a while and perhaps forever. It was a rather half-hearted and confusing exit from the team perspective,” he wrote in his column for Sky F1.
That isn’t to say his departure was unexpected. Knowing it may be his last race, Ricciardo was received back into the paddock with a guard of honor from supporters who lined his walk into the VCARB building. During interviews, he was asked about speculation of his dismissal but also wished well.
“Hope to see you in Austin,” F1TV Commentator Lawrence Barretto told a teary-eyed Ricciardo as he finished his media duties via an interview that the official Formula 1 account posted on X.
An emotional Ricciardo also acknowledged “this could be my last one” while thanking fans for voting him Driver of the Day; a typically insignificant accolade that held special meaning for the driver this time around. He also clinched the fastest lap, setting the track’s race record and robbing McLaren’s Lando Norris, his former teammate, of a coveted point towards the Drivers Championship.
Mid-season driver swaps aren’t new. This will be the second of the season after Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant was sacked in favor of rookie Franco Colapinto last month. But this is hardly “mid-season”. With only six races to go in a 24-race season, it’s a final chance for Lawson to prove he deserves the seat next year, and a poorly timed, badly executed sacking of one of the F1 fandom’s favorite drivers.
USC Marshall student and Formula 1 fan Andrew Aarons believes Ricciardo has truly changed the business of the sport and, as a fellow Aussie, has always been a fan.
“Anybody with a sense of nationalism is going to support their own country,” Aarons said.
But Ricciardo’s appeal is wider than that.
“He carried the Drive to Survive show,” Aarons said. “I think he’s one of the main reasons why F1 has had such a hype around it, such an increase in its valuation, because of his personality.”
DTS Executive Producer Paul Martin has said similar.
“Without Daniel I think there probably wouldn’t have been a Drive to Survive,” Martin said in an interview with the New York Post.
As for driver swaps, Aarons believes it does come down to business.
“F1 is a very expensive sport, and driver’s talent can only get you so far,” he said.
Logan Sargeant may have been near the top of the table in the so-called destructor’s championship — which ranks how much each team has had to spend replacing aspects of the car following crashes — but he was not winning points. His swap made sense, and was made promptly, with clear communication from the team. But Ricciardo wasn’t crashing as often, and brought incredible value to the team through sponsorship and his beloved media personality.
The choice to switch him out before the upcoming United States Grand Prix is also interesting. He has a large U.S. following and brings out a crowd to U.S. races. He’s worn cowboy hats, ridden a horse into the paddock and generally adorned himself in all things America.
Aarons said the timing is “probably a poor decision, although ultimately, people will only really care about what’s happening on track, and Ricciardo will still be around the paddock.”
The choice of this moment to announce the swap also may have less to do with Ricciardo, and more to do with his replacement. Liam Lawson’s contract with RedBull is said to guarantee him an F1 seat for 2025 by the end of September – or the young driver is free to look to other teams for a seat.
Scott Mitchell-Malm, writing for The Race, a digital motorsport channel, reported “Maybe handing him these final few races satisfies that – or maybe he’s now been guaranteed a seat for 2025, and it’s a question of which team he races for.”
He calls it “surely a 2025 Red Bull seat audition” for Lawson, as many theorize that Sergio Perez’s days at the top RB team are numbered following poor performance.
Even out of a seat, Aarons believes Ricciardo is “a professional” and we’ll likely see him performing media duties for RedBull in an ambassador role.
“He’ll still be able to be doing all of the interviews and things that he’s known for,” Aarons said. “That’s why Red Bull brought him in in the first place.”
When asked if he would have made the same decision to sack Ricciardo, Aarons took a different approach.
“I’d keep him in the seat. I’m biased, though, because I’m Australian,” he said. “I would keep him in. I’d bring Liam [Lawson] in next season in terms of business.”
With Lawson likely to be signed for the 2025 season, the grid is getting younger and younger. In addition, F2 rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli has signed to Mercedes, Oliver Bearman to Haas and Jack Doohan to Alpine. This new talent is incredibly exciting for the future of the sport, and is reminiscent of the 2019 rookie class that brought in Lando Norris, George Russell and Alex Albon, who have provided some incredible racing since they joined the grid five years ago.
But as new drivers join the exclusive club of F1, existing ones must step — or be pushed — aside to make space. Ricciardo joined in 2011, and saw his best finishes — third in the championship — in 2014 and 2016. Almost 10 years later he is not performing anywhere near that same level so it comes as no surprise that he didn’t land a 2025 seat.
Still, his ousting becoming F1′s worst-kept secret was the team’s failure. Forcing Ricciardo to face the cameras with no statement regarding his future from VCARB was hard to watch. As exciting as it is to have new talent on the grid, the handling of Ricciardo has left a bad taste in the mouths of many. F1 is a grueling, competitive and dangerous sport, but one of its most popular drivers, who competed for longer than most, deserved a better send-off than he received.
His departure may have come under unfortunate circumstances, but Daniel Ricciardo’s value extends well beyond the track. We’ll see him again soon, whether as a Red Bull ambassador, commentator or simply a spectator staying involved in the sport he’s devoted his life to.