How Daniel Ricciardo became a new kind of F1 star

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The shoeys. The jokes. The tattoos. The infamous, exaggerated “Pierreee Gaslyyyyyy!!!” and Nico Hülkenberg shouts.

Daniel Ricciardo isn’t a world champion or among the Formula One all-time greats based on his results — eight wins, three pole positions and 32 podium finishes over 13 seasons. But in the sport’s modern era, the Australian driver cemented himself as a one-of-a-kind icon by wearing his heart on his sleeve. The authenticity and humanity Ricciardo brought over the years drew in fans, new and old.

The Ricciardo glimpses over six seasons of Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ docuseries is the same driver media saw in the paddock. But beneath the surface is a fierce competitor. His peak came during his Red Bull days, from 2014-2018, and his last time on the podium happened in 2021 when he won the Italian Grand Prix, McLaren’s first F1 win since 2012.

“For anyone who thought I left, I never left,” he said over the team radio that day. “Just moved aside for a while.”

But he also experienced two hiatuses, one when he departed McLaren in 2022 and again in 2023 as he recovered from surgery while competing for AlphaTauri (now known as RB). His speed is evident, but Ricciardo lacked consistency in 2024. Questions arose whether Ricciardo could make a comeback to the senior team — a goal that never came to fruition.

“This year, the purpose was to try and do good enough to get back into Red Bull and fight for wins again, see if I’ve still got it,” Ricciardo said in Singapore. “I felt like I came up short with that, so I think it’s then, ‘OK, what else am I fighting for here? What else is going to give me fulfillment?’”

RB announced last week that Liam Lawson would replace Ricciardo for the remainder of the 2024 season. The seemingly awkward exit for Ricciardo led to mass criticism from fans on social media, given Ricciardo’s widespread popularity and a legacy bigger than just statistics and unique in the sport’s history.

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Ricciardo’s F1 career started similarly to how it ended.

The Australian joined the grid with HRT partway through the 2011 season, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. The team hadn’t scored in the first eight races of the year and opted to hand the reins to the Red Bull Academy driver. During Ricciardo’s first season, he often was near the back of the grid; however, he often out-qualified and finished ahead of teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, one of Red Bull’s first F1 drivers.

Red Bull promoted Ricciardo the following year to Toro Rosso, its sister team now known as RB. The Australian scored his first points in 2012 and continued to improve, finishing behind teammate Jean-Eric Vergne in 2012 but ahead in 2013. It was enough for Red Bull to call Ricciardo up to the senior team when Mark Webber left F1 at the end of the 2013 campaign.

The Red Bull chapter (from 2014-2018) became Ricciardo’s glory years. The 2014 season was the dawn of a new hybrid engine era for F1, and he thrived over the next four seasons, showing flashes of F1 world champion potential. It was easy to assume he would be Red Bull’s No. 2 to teammate Sebastian Vettel, who was a four-time world champion by that point. But while Mercedes’ duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated, they were defeated three times in 2014 — by Ricciardo each time.

Montreal was the Australian driver’s first F1 win, passing Rosberg with two laps to go. The other wins in 2014 came in Hungary (with impressive overtakes on Hamilton and Fernando Alonso) and Belgium (remember Hamilton and Rosberg’s collision?). By season’s end, he finished third in the driver standings and 71 points ahead of Vettel.

Even though Red Bull fell to the midfield in 2015, Ricciardo managed to secure a few podium finishes. When Max Verstappen joined part-way through 2016, Ricciardo’s biggest battle became his rising teammate. When the two went wheel-to-wheel in Malaysia, Ricciardo came out victorious. As Verstappen grew, the pair battled, memorably crashing out at the 2018 Azerbaijan GP.

Come 2019, Ricciardo left Red Bull for Renault, a decision many have questioned as Red Bull became a powerhouse. The two-year stint only led to a few podium finishes before he moved to McLaren. His time with the Woking-based team, though, ended a year before his contract was set to expire (McLaren signed Oscar Piastri for 2023 instead). Red Bull swooped in to keep Ricciardo around the sport as its “third driver.”

“I didn’t recognize the Daniel (he was) at the end of his tenure at McLaren,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said on the F1 Nation podcast. “I said to him, ‘Why don’t you come and join us, rediscover your passion for your sport?’” Horner added Ricciardo had “picked up some really bad habits” during his time at McLaren. “And bit by bit, working with his old engineering team, he started to find his form again.”

Ricciardo’s hunger came back. When Nyck de Vries got cut from AlphaTauri, the Australian was tapped as the replacement. Ricciardo later missed five races that season after injuring his hand, and Lawson served as the replacement, making a big impression.

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But on the senior team, Sergio Pérez struggled in late 2023. Ricciardo essentially was the Milton Keynes-based team’s safety net and publicly desired a return to Red Bull. During the 2024 campaign, Ricciardo’s form lacked consistency. However, Pérez’s struggles reemerged, which led to many wondering ahead of summer break whether a return to Red Bull would be possible for the Australian.

“I would have loved to see him use it as a springboard to get back to where he was, to have completed the story. But it wasn’t to be,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said on F1 Nation, after news broke of Ricciardo being replaced at RB. “Daniel’s honest about that, and he knows in his heart he gave it his best shot. He’s had a great career, he’s had a great run, but unfortunately the next chapter wasn’t to be.”

Ricciardo’s career, during its prime, was marked by being the last of the late-brakers — a fearless driver who courted dreams of contending for a world championship before they slipped away for various reasons (like Mercedes’ decade-long domination). But several of his wins featured passing masterclasses, like in China 2018 when Ricciardo famously said, “Sometimes you just have to lick the stamp and send it.”

But one of the most iconic victories was likely Monaco 2018 — yes, that photo. He nursed mechanical issues for 50 laps, and even his race engineer was surprised, saying after the Australian crossed the line, “I don’t know how you did that, Daniel.”

His final race at Singapore behind him, it’s end of an era for Ricciardo, at least on-track.

“He’s a natural entertainer and a showman,” Horner continued, “he will be for sure in front of the camera at some point and I’m sure there will be a documentary or something, that will be fascinating.”

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“I’m Daniel Ricciardo, and I’m a car mechanic.”

His voice is the first you hear on the pilot episode of ‘Drive to Survive.’ He is shown as the first sit-down interview, and he didn’t disappoint, quick to joke on one of the first questions he was asked. With Mercedes and Ferrari not participating in the first season, Ricciardo stepped into the spotlight and became part of why the newest wave of fans fell in love with F1.

In a sport where the athletes spend most of their time in cars with helmets on, Netflix allowed fans to get closer to the sport’s personalities than ever before. Ricciardo brought the human element from the get-go while decked in his Red Bull gear during Season 1. As the seasons wore on, several moments throughout his career that we recounted became immortalized on Netflix. The Monaco pool belly flop. Ricciardo’s move to Renault. The emotions of the 2021 Italian GP victory with McLaren.

Leaving Red Bull for Renault saw his on-track results dip, but his popularity took off as Ricciardo’s career unfolded. He became a superstar of the Netflix docuseries, a show partially credited with F1’s popularity boom. The sport and fandom grew alongside him as critical moves in his career post-Red Bull were captured intimately on camera. When his time at McLaren was coming to an end in 2022, Netflix put together a segment reflecting on his time in F1, showing various clips from across the years.

Before the montage ran in the finale of season five, a producer said off camera, “This might be the last time you’re sat in this chair.” Ricciardo replied, “Yeah,” while the producer asked, “Thought about that?”

Ricciardo sighed.

“I mean, the show wouldn’t be the same without me, so… what do you do?”

DANIEL RICCIARDO. Forever our Honey Badger. pic.twitter.com/19Rf0P3yHs

— Netflix (@netflix) September 27, 2024

Fan edits began surfacing on social media after the Singapore GP, with posts on different platforms honoring the Australian and paired with songs like ‘Pink Skies’ by Zach Bryan (one of Ricciardo’s favorite music artists). When news broke that Lawson was replacing him, plenty of current and previous drivers, as well as multiple teams, shared their thoughts about the Australian driver.

“(Daniel), it’s been a honour to compete with you over the years. I’ll never forget the battles, the laughs, and drinking out of your shoe. It was gross, but glad I got to do it with you bud,” Hamilton posted on Instagram. “You leave a legacy of always being yourself, which in this sport is never easy. You’ve taken it all with the biggest smile and I salute you for it. There is so much more for you up ahead and I can’t wait to see what you do next. Always here for you, man.”

But Ricciardo became bigger than the sport, his popularity extending beyond the confines of the F1 world. He appeared on podcasts and talk shows, gracing the couches of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert’s shows. He attended the Met Gala for the first time in 2023, something Hamilton has done five times. He created his merchandise line, Enchanté, and launched a wine collection. Non-F1 official sports accounts even weighed in about the late driver drop, like the Vegas Golden Knights and the NFL Australia and New Zealand account with the Buffalo Bills.

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The departure is not a complete surprise, though a swap before the final six races (and three sprints) does raise eyebrows. Ricciardo’s performance lacked consistency, and the idea of a Red Bull comeback started having question marks.

It remains to be seen what Ricciardo’s next move will be. Interestingly, the word retirement has yet to be used publicly, but the sentiment seems to be there.

“I’m proud of the career. I tried to become world champion, I tried to become the best at something in the world,” Ricciardo said in Singapore. “I think it is a tall task that we ask from ourselves. Some achieve it, some don’t. In the end, if I came up a little short, I also can’t be too hard on myself.

“Happy with the effort I put in, and for that, there’s no sadness or feeling or regret or what could have been.”

It is natural to wonder whether he’ll look at other motorsports series, like NASCAR or Supercars, to name a few. Perhaps, one day, he’ll try his hand at broadcasting like Jenson Button, Jolyon Palmer or David Coulthard. Given the fan response to his departure, many likely hope the 35-year-old will stay around the world of F1. Horner does.

“We’ve made it very clear that we want him to remain in an ambassadorial capacity with the team, and of course, one never really knows. I mean, if Liam doesn’t get the job done, if Checo doesn’t get the job done, we know what Daniel’s capability is,” Horner said on F1 Nation. “But I think for him, he knows, at the age that he’s at, he’s had a great career. So many memories.

“The most disgusting thing ever was drinking champagne out of his sweaty boot! But he made it his own, and he got some incredible people to drink the champagne from his sweaty shoe.”

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Top photo: Vince Mignott/MB Media via Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb/The Athletic