Daniel Ricciardo has teased a potential racing comeback in a bid to end his motorsport career on his terms.
Ricciardo was dropped from the Racing Bulls team at the end of 2024 in a petering-out of a career that delivered eight victories and two third-place championship finishes.
The West Australian has kept a mostly low profile in the two years since, though he has become increasingly present on the motorsport fringes through an ambassadorship with Ford.
PIT TALK PODCAST: Andrea Kimi Antonelli puts one hand and four fingers on the title trophy after dominating the United States Grand Prix. | Listen to Pit Talk here >
Speaking to F1 podcast Beyond the Grid, Ricciardo admitted that the “humiliation” of his sacking had kept him away from motorsport but that a visit to this year’s Indianapolis 500 — his first appearance at a racetrack of any description — had played a role in rehabilitating his passion for competition.
“I’m at a place now where I’m actually probably more open (to the thought of a comeback) than I was in the last two years,” he said.
“I went to the Indy 500 this year. It made me feel a love for it and a love for racing, a love for competing. I didn’t think I would like it as much.
“I’m at a place now where I think my relationship with driving/racing is healthier than it was.
“Do I hate last time I put a helmet on was in Singapore and how such a love over my life of racing ended and the taste it left in my mouth about it all?
“Yeah, I don’t like that, because I was very bitter towards the idea of anything racing after that, and I felt how it ended made me feel a certain way about the last 20 years, not just that.
“I would love to have had a nicer ending, but I need to make sure that it’s for the right reasons and I’m not just doing it to create a fairytale and to have the last line in the book that has a smile and it’s not some sadness.”
Ricciardo has been connected to the 24 Hours of Le Mans through Ford, which is returning to the premier sports car race next year. Earlier this year Ford global racing director Mark Rushbrook teased an openness to giving the Australian a seat alongside Max Verstappen, who has a well-established interest in competing at Le Mans.
The Australian has declared himself retired from full-time competition, but with two years out of motorsport, he said he was coming around to the idea of returning to racing in a limited capacity.
“A year ago I would have said I will never put a helmet on again, I’m done,” he said. “But there is something there where it would be nice for me to finish a racing career a bit more on my terms, so to do something when I take the helmet off I’m smiling and happy. Maybe that’s the last bit of closure I need.”
Asked specifically about an appearance at Le Mans, Ricciardo was notably positive.
“Maybe there’s one of those scenarios for sure that could perk me up,” he said.
“I think also, yes, to take the helmet off and have a better view of racing than what I had after Singapore and all that, sure, that would be a nicer form of closure.
“But there are things that I think of with Le Mans (that would be positive).
“F1 is so selfish in a necessary way. Yes, you have teammates, but they’re your first opponent. I think to share a car with other drivers and to actually have real teammates to share data with and help out, (I think I would like that).
“Especially now, at this point where that insane fire and ruthlessness have faded to a degree, I think that style, I would just enjoy it.
“I think it would be the form of driving and companionship that I would really enjoy, and I think it would make me smile and feel good about the art of competition again.”
Asked who he would like to race with, he namechecked Verstappen.
“Give the people what they want!” he laughed.
HUMILIATION AND FAILURE
Ricciardo’s journey to contemplating a limited racing comeback has been long and complicated.
His exit from the sport was sudden and in many respected badly handled. Though it became clear during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix weekend that he would be replaced by Liam Lawson, official confirmation did not come until days after the fact, via press release.
That the decision came only months after he had been told he would replace Sergio Pérez at Red Bull Racing — only for the team to reverse that decision and stick with the Mexican, who was also sacked at the end of the season — made things only more bitter.
In a remarkably candid interview, Ricciardo said he struggled with feelings of humiliation and failure in the aftermath of his sacking.
“I think the first phase straight after Singapore was still trying to stay tall and strong,” he said. “It’s a coping mechanism or a defence mechanism or trying to outwardly project that I’m fine and it’s all good — kind of ultimately hiding from a feeling of humiliation.
“That was the first phase, just thinking everything was okay, but obviously I was very hurt inside.
“Then I think once things settled … there was a little bit of, ‘Okay, where am I at? Where am I at with life?’
“There’s been many days in the last two years that I’ve woken up without a purpose and days just tick by and you’re like, ‘Okay, what am I doing with my life?’ and you feel like a failure, honestly.
“It’s very, very confronting to say to yourself when you look at yourself in the mirror, ‘I’m a failure. I’ve achieved absolutely nothing this week, and days have just ticked by’ and, ‘What am I doing with my life?’.”
“I think trying to deal with those next few months, I understood it as I was just hiding from the humiliation.
“People saw me out in public, I was laughing and having a good time and having a drink or whatever, and I was just really hiding from what I really felt deep inside, which was a lot of pain and sadness — like, ‘Shit, it’s gone’.
“I was once this kid that was hoping at least to fight for a world title and obviously win races or whatever, but now it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s gone’.”
‘GRATEFUL’ RED BULL PULLED THE TRIGGER
Deep down, however, Ricciardo knew he was done. He had been contemplating the end of his career for years.
“I thought … I was still hungry and wanted to try to prove something, mainly to myself (after being sacked),” he said.
“But there were moments where I was done and I think also in denial.
“There were definitely times that I was like, ‘I don’t love this anymore. I don’t really want to be here’.
“It’s like, ‘Okay, sleep it off. You’ll get there and you’ll be fine’. And then maybe you have one good race or one moment and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got the fire back’.
“I still wanted the fairytale of course. I wanted to get back with Red Bull Racing, and I would have loved to have been teammates with Max again and tried to race at the front again.
“But I knew also deep down I was getting just more burnt out by it all.
“It wasn’t as easy for me anymore to perform and compete at the level that I once did.
“I think there was just a lot of pain, process — a lot of things that just were happening and had happened over the years that I think had just built up, and it just very hard for me to probably shut all that out and do it.”
He singled out the weekend of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix as a particularly difficult moment, having been belted by teammate Lando Norris in qualifying and finishing abjectly scoreless at a circuit at which he’d previously been ferociously quick.
It was notably the same weekend McLaren CEO Zak Brown first revealed he was contemplating cancelling Ricciardo’s contract in the middle of a second difficult season together.
“After the race I’m sitting in my apartment talking to my team and I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m done.’
“I’ve had these conversations more than once over the years.”
Not only did Ricciardo not pull the plug, but he didn’t accept being sacked by McLaren, immediately tying up with Red Bull in a bid to get back onto the grid, potentially with Red Bull Racing.
In retrospect Ricciardo wondered whether he would ever have had enough self-awareness to quit the sport, even in his most difficult moments.
“The fear I had … is that what if they kept just extending contracts for me? Would I keep doing it?
“Was I ever going to turn the tap off? Because I know I wanted to … but the reality is: would I have?
“Because I think also you have people around you that tell you you’re great, tell you can still do it, and you end up also believing a lot of these voices.
“I think that would have probably just continued, and maybe I’d still be racing, and that’s also a scary thought.
“I still don’t like how it ended, but there’s also a part of me which is grateful that they pulled the trigger, because I wouldn’t want to be doing it now.”
THAT RED BULL RACING QUESTION
The hinge of Ricciardo’s career was his 2018 decision to quit Red Bull Racing and join Renault.
It stunned the team and most observers given RBR’s title-winning status at a time Renault has only recently returned to the sport.
Though Ricciardo was debatably in his prime in 2020, the switch precipitated his career decline, leading to his ill-fated move to McLaren 2022, his sacking at the end of the following season and his abortive attempt to rejoin Red Bull Racing that ended in his enforced retirement.
Max Verstappen won all four of his world titles with Red Bull Racing in the final four years of Ricciardo’s career.
Ricciardo wouldn’t speculate on whether he could have fulfilled his championship potential but admitted the decision to quit the team clearly didn’t end the way he’d hoped at the time.
“I definitely don’t want to say, ‘Oh yeah, I would have been world champion if I stayed’ because I think it’s not a reality that was lived, and Max has gone on to prove that he is one of the best ever, so I don’t want to dismiss that as well and be like, ‘Yeah, I would have beat Max and become world champion’,” he said.
“It wouldn’t have been an easy task, but I think it’s also maybe a bit unfair towards him to say that — obviously I respect him a lot.
“There’s also reality where Max just kept getting better and kept getting momentum. Would I have kept lifting? It’s hard to say. But for sure at that time I felt very able. Obviously I won some races that 2018 year, and I got a pole. I was still very capable.
“I’m not doubting my abilities to have kept competing with Max, but it’s a hard one.”
He admitted, though, that not finding out whether he could have contended for a title alongside Verstappen is perhaps his biggest career regret.
“If I’m to answer it shortly: yes, I wish I would have stayed, but I don’t know.
“At the time I left, because I felt I was getting a bit comfortable, a bit complacent, I think there was a desire to try something else.
“It’s not that black and white. If I could have been a world champion, yes. Was that my best opportunity? Yeah, absolutely.
“I don’t want to say it haunts me, but it’s the one unknown that I’m so interested (in) how that would have panned out.”
“If I could relive it again, would I stay and am I absolutely curious about what would have happened? Yes, the answer is yes.
“If you want to call it regret or curiosity or whatever, then I will say yes.”
But Ricciardo said that he remained proud of his career despite the way it ended, particularly for the legacy he left.
“I am definitely proud,” he said.
“I just never thought that kid would end up being a race-winner and someone in F1 who also had a long career and — if I can say without being arrogant — left a mark on a sport.
“All these things, I’m proud of that.
“F*** it, I do believe my overtaking and stuff did break through something.
“I see so many more dummies, and I feel like my style of overtakes happen these days. I at least played a part in that for sure.
“I’m proud of a lot of these things … I’m proud to have made an impact on the sport. I can’t deny that.”
Leave a Reply