Daniel Ricciardo reveals the truth behind his decision to reject Haas and not drive in 2023
Ahead of what could be his final Formula One race, Daniel Ricciardo has revealed why he doesn’t want to race next season and his reasons for rejecting Haas.
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Ahead of what could be his final Formula One race, Daniel Ricciardo has revealed why he doesn’t want to race next season.
The Australian has been subjected to relentless speculation since the middle of the year as rumours began to swirl that he would be sacked by McLaren.
And once the rumours were confirmed to be true with the 33-year-old unceremoniously terminated from his contract 12 months ahead of schedule, it now seems everything that is happening suits the superstar’s current head space.
Instead of taking up a seat with Haas or chasing a spot in the middle order, Ricciardo looks set to put pen to paper on a reserve contract driver role with his former team Red Bull.
While a risky move with the Aussie hopeful of a seat in 2024, he is becoming more and more trabnsparent about his motivations for a break.
“I don’t want to race next year. That’s the truth,” Ricciardo admitted.
“I don’t want to race next year, so that’s why not them (Haas).
“It’s obviously been pretty tiring the last couple of years with the struggles, so it was pretty clear to me shortly after the summer break that that was what I wanted, and what was going to be best for me.
“So then it was: ‘Okay. What’s the next best thing?’ And the more I thought about it, to obviously be involved to some degree with a top team, that was obviously the preference.
“But it’s not done. So that’s why I haven’t come out and confirmed it, because that’s still the truth: it’s not done. But I can obviously look you in the eye now and say it’s the most likely option at this stage.”
Many have raised their eyebrows about a voluntary year out form F1 with Ricciardo running the risk of becoming a forgotten star as opposed to an in-demand veteran.
It’s a brutal sport with a short memory with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen the lucky few to have enjoyed successful returns.
Ricciardo however appears to have a laissez-faire attitude; what will be will be.
Off the back of a monstrous 23-round season and two years of covid-hit chaos, he simply wants a taste of normal.
“Honestly, I think that’s also in a way the beauty with this. It’ll (a break) either fuel the fire and make me hungry and more motivated than ever, or it will actually be like ‘oh, this is the right thing for you’, and in that case then I must be really happy.
“Because as much as you go through highs and lows of racing, I’m still very happy with life, and am privileged to live a good one. So if next year I’m not interested in coming back, then I must be doing some really cool shit.”
Ricciardo’s time at McLaren has not been happy form a results point of view.
While the ironic smile is ever present, there are those who heavily criticise the last two years.
“In one word, disastrous,” Alan Jones says of Ricciardo’s time with the papaya.
“There’s no other way to describe it.
“Daniel is a really good race driver, but I’m of the opinion that a race driver should be able to hop into anything and drive it.
“Some can do it better than others. But in the old days Formula 1 drivers were invited to drive touring cars, or sports cars, you couldn’t just hop into one and say, ‘Well sorry, I can’t get to grips with it.’
“You wouldn’t last too long.”
HOW WILL RICCIARDO’S F1 CAREER BE REMEMBERED?
After 231 race starts, 32 podiums and eight Grand Prix victories, Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career could be over in just 58 laps of the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Sunday night.
Slapped with a three-place grid penalty for culpability in an opening lap crash that ended both he and Kevin Magnussen’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the West Australian’s final race has been handicapped before it even starts.
In some ways it’s a poignant addendum to a downright disappointing stint with McLaren, which will end this weekend a year earlier than anticipated after driver and team agreed to part ways.
Ricciardo’s move from Renault to McLaren was to be the next step in his push for that elusive world championship. Instead, points in the papaya have been limited to a magical moment at Monza in 2021 and a smattering of minor top-10 finishes either side.
Far from the heady heights of his 2014 and 2016 seasons at Red Bull, when he finished third in the drivers’ championship, Ricciardo will end the 2022 campaign with his worst points finish since his fledgling Formula 1 years at Toro Rosso – short of a last-start miracle this weekend.
But it wasn’t always the case for the “Honey Badger”.
Ricciardo has captivated Formula 1 and its fans for more than a decade. On-track he became known for his aggressive overtakes and brilliant race craft while off it, his quick wit and thousand watt smile earned him almost universal admiration within the paddock and stands.
It was a near-seamless transition for fans from Mark Webber to his Aussie understudy, with Ricciardo capturing three race victories in his maiden season at Red Bull and outplacing reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel in the process.
The arrival of the hybrid engine era brought with it a litany of reliability issues to Red Bull’s garage. Vettel struggled markedly but a fresh-faced Ricciardo, elevated from Toro Rosso, flourished.
His was the only car capable of competing with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg that year; a trio of race victories in Canada, Hungary and Belgium all that stood between Mercedes and a season cleansweep.
But Red Bull’s era of championship dominance ended with Mercedes’ meteoric rise in 2014 and for the remainder of his time at Milton Keynes, he was always fighting a superior car.
The paddock will not be the same next season without DR3’s antics. His plans to return to a full-time drive in 2024 appear optimistic at best.
Having spurned offers to drive for backmarker teams in 2023 Ricciardo’s immediate future appears set to be as a reserve driver next season, with eyes firmly fixed on 2024.
If Sunday’s race in Abu Dhabi proves to be the last we see of DR3 in a Formula 1 seat, let’s appreciate all that the 33-year-old has given to the sport and its fans over his stellar career.
Read on for a list of the Honey Badger’s greatest highs and lows.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Maiden in Montreal
Everyone remembers their first. For Ricciardo it came at the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix, when he ended Mercedes’ run of six-straight race wins to start the season and announced himself to the Formula 1 world.
A 24-year-old Ricciardo qualified sixth on the grid, with the all-conquering Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton enjoying yet another front row lockout.
It loomed as another Mercedes one-two in Montreal, before Hamilton was forced to retire on lap 48 when his brakes failed.
Ricciardo, sensing the moment, roared into second behind Rosberg and was able to take the lead with two laps remaining. He timed his run perfectly, with Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez crashing out on the following lap, bringing out the safety car and allowing Ricciardo to coast over the line for his first-ever Formula 1 chequered flag.
“Yeah, I’m still a bit in shock. Thanks everyone. This is ridiculous. Lots of Aussie flags, that’s nice,” Ricciardo said post-race.
“It’s not that we were leading the whole race, so it’s not that I had time to understand that I was going to win, it all happened in the last few laps, so I think that’s why it’s still taking a while to comprehend in my head. But really nice, a really good feeling. The race came to life at the end.”
Triple Overtake in Baku
At the peak of his powers Ricciardo’s Red Bull was just about the last car a rival wanted to see in his mirrors, and the Aussie’s brilliant move at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was proof in the pudding.
Sitting in sixth on a lap 22 red flag restart, Ricciardo took advantage of a massive tow afforded to him by Lance Stroll, Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg ahead. In one swift move the Australian shot up the inside line approaching turn 1 and in the space of a few hundred metres had gone from sixth to third.
It wasn’t quite the wheel-to-wheel thrill of a Mark Webber versus Fernando Alonso through Eau Rouge circa 2012, but Ricciardo’s thrilling triple pass in Baku remains one of the most talked about modern overtakes.
Monza Magic
It was the result that many hoped would spark a Ricciardo revival at McLaren. History will deem the incredible one-two at Monza a remarkable outlier in an otherwise disappointing stint in the papaya but the moment itself was one to savour for the driver and his team.
A dramatic crash between title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen opened the door for Ricciardo and teammate Lando Norris to take the lead in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
The papaya pair held on to record a famous one-two; McLaren’s first race win since Jenson Button in 2012 and the team’s first one-two since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix.
Monaco Redemption
On-pole at Monaco in 2016, bad luck ruined Ricciardo’s chance at victory at Formula 1’s most iconic circuit. Two years later he topped qualifying once again and had redemption in his sights.
Monaco is a notoriously difficult track for overtaking and thus the pole sitter is in the box seat to lead from start to finish.
Ricciardo was doing just that until lap 28, when he radioed to the team that he was quickly losing power in his engine.
“Is it going to get better?” Ricciardo asked the garage, to which team boss Christian Horner had to reply: “Negative Daniel, negative”.
What followed was perhaps the grittiest 50 laps a driver has ever had to endure.
With his Red Bull failing underneath him, Ricciardo battled tooth and nail to hold off his former teammate Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari.
Two years earlier Ricciardo’s Monaco win was taken from him. With the odds once against stacked against him, the Aussie defied it all to take his seventh career victory and undoubtedly, the best of the lot.
Success and a Shoey
A Ricciardo podium isn’t complete without sipping champagne from a sweaty racing boot.
The tradition started at the 2016 German Grand Prix and the Aussie saluted at every opportunity after that.
The fan-favourite podium performance was scoffed at by rivals at first, but even Lewis Hamilton eventually joined in on the fun.
Ricciardo’s famous celebratory swig of champagne has captured just about anyone fortunate – or unfortunate – enough to be close by, including the likes of Gerard Butler and Sir Patrick Stewart.
LOWLIGHTS
Pitiful pit stop ruins Monaco dream
Ricciardo has only taken three poles in his Formula 1 career and two of them have come at Monaco.
He famously defied a power failure in 2018 to hold off Sebastian Vettel for 50 laps to secure an incredible victory in Monte Carlo. But two years prior, at the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix, Ricciardo should have had victory.
He produced a scintillating 1.13.622 in qualifying, almost 0.2 of a second faster than Nico Rosberg, to start at the front for the famous race.
The Australian was called to box on lap 32 to change to slick tyres, following the lead of Lewis Hamilton a lap earlier. But a horror mixup in the Red Bull garage saw Ricciardo sat stationary while engineers raced to find tyres that were not ready.
The long stop meant Ricciardo exited behind Hamilton, and on the tight streets of Monte Carlo he was unable to pass the Mercedes and forced to settle for second.
“I was called into the box, I didn’t make the call … they should have been ready,” a frustrated Ricciardo said after the race.
“I don’t know (how it happened). And right now I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear anything. I want to get out of here to be honest. I feel I’ve delivered, I’ve done everything I can and not been rewarded.
“This one I don’t know how to handle. It hurts, this one hurts a lot, more than any other.”
Norris waves to lapped Ricciardo
Monaco has been the scene for the highest of highs and lowest of lows in Ricciardo’s career, and one of the worst of them came during the 2021 iteration.
In his first season with McLaren the Aussie was expected to show rising star Lando Norris the ropes and be the team’s number one. Instead it was the young Briton who led the way in the papaya, and the gulf was punctuated in Monaco when Norris lapped Ricciardo and waved to his teammate on the way past.
Stripped of home podium
Melbourne hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Ricciardo; the Aussie’s best finish to his home Grand Prix a sixth in 2015. But he should have had a podium a year earlier.
In his maiden season at Red Bull, Ricciardo qualified on the front row of the grid at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix alongside Lewis Hamilton.
He would finish the race in the same place, however was subsequently disqualified for exceeding the maximum fuel-flow rate of 100kg/h. Red Bull argued the fuel-flow metre was faulty, however the FIA stuck to its guns and the Australian was stripped of his hometown heroics.
Ricciardo at least was able to stand on the podium and celebrate his second-place finish in front of the adoring fans.
Red Bull teammates collide
Off the track they may have enjoyed a friendly mateship but on it they were anything but. Ricciardo and his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen spent the 2018 season in a constant battle to one-up the other and it came to a head in Baku.
On lap 40 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Ricciardo caught a slipstream on Verstappen and attempted to overtake, but the Dutchman defended the move multiple times resulting in Ricciardo running up the back of his teammate’s Red Bull and the pair sent spinning off the track.
Team boss Christian Horner was furious in the aftermath and both drivers were penalised by the FIA for their part in the crash.
Ricciardo later revealed the handling of that moment in Baku factored into his decision to leave the team at the end of the season, with the Aussie feeling he was harshly judged given Verstappen appeared to defend his passing attempt more than once – an illegal maneouveur.
McLaren split with year to run on contract
Ricciardo left Renault having exceeded expectations in a mid-table car and the hope was that with McLaren he could build with the team into a possible title contender.
Just 18 months into his three-year deal, he and the team announced they would part at the end of the 2022 season with both parties agreeing the relationship had not gone according to plan.
Though Ricciardo helped to deliver McLaren its first win in a decade at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, it would be his only podium in the papaya.
Teammate Lando Norris – talented but much less experienced than Ricciardo – regularly placed higher than the Australian, who admitted he and the car just did not gel.
Ricciardo was told after the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 31 that the team intended to replace him for 2023; later learning that rookie Aussie Oscar Piastri had already signed a contract with the team earlier that month.
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