Daniel Ricciardo got fired from F1, here's why he was cool with it

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo got fired from F1, here's why he was cool with it

Daniel Ricciardo was kicked out of F1 before the end of the 2024 season

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Thursday 2 April 2026 21:56 Updated: 20:15

Daniel Ricciardo has opened up on his enforced retirement from Formula 1, claiming he is grateful that the decision was taken out of his hands.

Ricciardo was axed after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix at the Racing Bulls team having endured a lacklustre season where he had only scored seven points and was being outpaced by team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

The Australian's final act was to set the fastest lap at Marina Bay before being replaced by Liam Lawson for the final six races. Despite links to Cadillac for this year, Ricciardo retired from F1 shortly after his exit.

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For a fan favourite who had won eight grands prix across his career, it was a sad ending. Ricciardo though has hinted that his axing by McLaren at the end of 2022 had already put him on the path to retirement, despite coming back with Racing Bulls midway through 2023.

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Daniel Ricciardo on when he knew it was over

Ricciardo spoke on Jim Farley's podcast about his last few years in the sport: "I lasted another year in F1 and then ultimately got let go, that was the reality at the time. But I think once that happened, I'd been let go twice in the last however two years, it had also taken a lot out of me. I'd put a lot of my soul into it and I did feel pretty exhausted by it.

"On reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me. I think it would have been hard to be like, 'I'm done.' I knew I was probably done because I knew that it was harder for me to perform at the level I could. For whatever reason, I lost a little bit of something and it's okay to admit it. It's fine."

Ricciardo: Drop the ego

Ricciardo revealed that even had he completed his year with Racing Bulls in 2024, he still would have doubted whether he would have been able to continue given his admittance to being past his prime years.

“It's easier said than done, but remove any fairytales", Ricciardo added. "Remove your ego as much as possible. There's people that love you and will still tell you that you're great and you can do it. But as much as you love them as well, you need to just close the door and make that decision on your own and be really honest with yourself.

"If I would have got to the end of last year, I think I would have still had a lot of these thoughts and had the conversation with myself because I knew it was becoming harder for me and I had to dig really deep to pull out a result that I was proud of.

"You always want to believe everyone's looking out for you and they probably still are, but they don't know what it's like to be you and in your situation. So I would just stress give yourself enough alone time to really... you'll get the answer. If you find time, you'll get it.

"So my retirement year I gave myself a lot of time to just reflect on my career to be at peace with it and if I was constantly surrounded by people I never would have had that. So yeah, go for a long old hike."

F1 Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo Racing Bulls