Daniel Ricciardo: What Happened, Current Plans, Future in Racing

Daniel Ricciardo spent a decade making Formula 1 look fun — the shoey, the smile, the radio jokes — so when the seat disappeared in 2024, the silence felt strange. His final race came at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix (The Race (motorsport news outlet)), and ever since, the paddock has asked one question: what does he do now with a lifestyle brand called Enchanté, a global Ford Racing ambassadorship, and a genuine maybe about racing again?

Grand Prix wins: 8 ·
Podium finishes: 32 ·
F1 starts: 232 ·
Teams raced for: HRT, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, McLaren, AlphaTauri ·
Nickname: The Honey Badger

Six data points, one pattern: the biography stayed steady even as the team lineup kept changing around him.

The twist in these numbers: a driver with seven teams and 232 starts never won a title, yet he left an imprint most champions never manage. The most durable part of his legacy will probably end up being the brand he built after the last race.

What has happened to Daniel Ricciardo?

The short version: Ricciardo didn’t walk away mid-season, and he didn’t announce a retirement on the spot. He was replaced — and the team’s decision, not his own, turned out to be the end of his Formula 1 career.

Departure from Formula One

• Racing Bulls replaced Ricciardo with Liam Lawson for the remainder of the 2024 season, meaning his final F1 race was the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
• The seat change effectively ended his F1 career at the time, though no formal retirement announcement followed immediately.

The exit was abrupt. Red Bull’s junior team needed to evaluate Liam Lawson, and Ricciardo was out of a race seat with the season still unfinished. A year later, in September 2025, he formally announced his retirement from racing, according to later reporting from GPFans (F1 news site).

He didn’t go out with a victory lap. He went out with a seat change, then a long pause, then a statement — and by the time the statement came, most of the paddock had already moved on.

Final season with AlphaTauri

• 2023: Ricciardo returns to the Red Bull family with AlphaTauri.
• 2024: the team is rebranded as Racing Bulls.
• The comeback was meant to rebuild his value; instead, it produced the exit that ended his career.

AlphaTauri was the reset, back inside the Red Bull ecosystem where he’d won seven of his eight Grands Prix, with the hope that a strong comeback would reopen a path to a front-running seat. The machinery was a rung below the front, but Ricciardo had spent his whole career getting more out of less.

The 2023 return produced flashes; the 2024 season never built the momentum Red Bull wanted. By the time Singapore ended, the call had already been made in the team’s garage. The implication: Ricciardo’s final F1 chapter was about timing more than talent — he was fighting a car that couldn’t fight back, and the team ran out of patience before he ran out of hope.

The pattern: the paddock moved on before the driver did, but Ricciardo used the gap to build exactly the exit he wanted, just slower than the sport expected.

What is Daniel Ricciardo doing now?

Ricciardo’s answer to retirement looks a lot like his answer to racing: full commitment, a competitive streak, and a refusal to be boring.

Founder of Enchanté

• Daniel Ricciardo on LinkedIn (personal profile) lists Ricciardo as founder of Enchanté from January 2023.
• Enchanté is described as a lifestyle apparel brand created as a creative outlet away from racing.
• The brand’s website highlights a collaboration with Ford Racing on a collection and a race-week pop-up (Enchanté (official brand site)).

Enchanté is the clearest sign that Ricciardo planned for a life after the cockpit. The brand started while he was still an F1 driver and has grown into the centerpiece of his professional life. A shoot reported by GPFans had him directing a campaign with vintage sports cars in Bridgehampton, United States — hardly the quiet retirement of a driver who wanted to fade out.

Ricciardo has been honest about the learning curve. The transition into directing shoots and working behind the camera felt intimidating, he told GPFans (F1 news site) — a rare admission from a man who once turned every podium into a party.

Social media presence and brand partnerships

• His Instagram account has roughly 9.9 million followers, keeping him among F1’s most-followed figures after retirement.
• Ricciardo became a global ambassador for Ford Racing after leaving Formula 1.
• The Ford role has included promoting the Raptor brand and taking part in Ford Racing activities.

The numbers explain why brands keep calling: Ricciardo’s social reach survived his retirement, and his personal brand is arguably stronger now that it isn’t tied to a race-weekend schedule.

Ford’s Raptor campaign is a natural fit — a loud, unapologetic product for a driver whose whole image was built on toughness with a grin. The Enchanté collaboration turns the ambassadorship into something more personal than a standard endorsement (Enchanté (official brand site)).

Life in Western Australia

• Ricciardo is based in Western Australia.
• An Enchanté blog post described him spending more time in the company’s office after leaving racing.
• He attended the 2026 Indianapolis 500 and described the experience as a way to stay connected to motorsport from outside the driver’s seat.

The Indianapolis 500 visit was the moment the motorsport world noticed he was still watching from inside the room. His framing was relaxed — not a job audition, just a driver staying close to the sport he loves.

Home, though, is Western Australia, and that part of his life looks settled: an office to run, a brand to build, and enough motorsport appearances to keep the connection alive. The pattern: Ricciardo didn’t leave racing so much as reload it — every post-retirement move keeps him inside the motorsport economy without needing a race seat to justify it.

The pattern: Ricciardo hasn’t left racing — he’s rebuilt it. Every post-retirement move keeps him inside the motorsport economy without needing a race seat.

Why did Daniel Ricciardo leave F1?

There’s a simple version — “he lost his seat” — and a truer one. Three exits, at three different teams, explain the full picture.

Performance decline at McLaren

• Ricciardo left Red Bull after the 2018 season.
• Two seasons at Renault (2019–2020) were followed by two at McLaren (2021–2022).
• The 2021 Monza win was the high point; the team’s decision to move on confirmed it couldn’t be repeated.

McLaren was the moment Ricciardo was supposed to prove he could lead a resurgent team. The 2021 Italian Grand Prix victory was the proof, for one afternoon. The problem was consistency: across two seasons, the results didn’t match the promise, and McLaren chose to move on.

That decision reshaped his career. From then on, Ricciardo was no longer a driver teams fought over; he was a driver looking for a way back in. What this means: the McLaren period cost him the leverage that had defined his peak years.

Time away from the sport as a reserve driver

• 2023: Ricciardo returned to Red Bull as a reserve driver.
• During the 2023 season, he stepped back into a race seat with AlphaTauri.
• He had indicated he would stay in F1 only if a credible route to a front-running seat existed (The Race (motorsport news outlet)).

The reserve role was a reset of expectations. Ricciardo had said it plainly: he didn’t want a midfield treadmill, he wanted a car that could win. AlphaTauri was the compromise — a Red Bull-affiliated seat, but not the front-running car he’d asked for.

Decision to step away permanently

• After Racing Bulls replaced him, Ricciardo did not pursue a full-time seat for 2025.
• In September 2025, he formally announced his retirement from racing (GPFans (F1 news site)).

The gap between the team’s decision and the announcement — a full year — was telling. Ricciardo spent that time neither publicly fighting for a comeback nor announcing an exit. Then he closed the door himself.

The trade-off: a farewell season would have given fans a proper goodbye, but Ricciardo chose the quieter exit — and turned his full attention to the brand that outlasted the seat.

The implication: the quiet exit let Ricciardo turn his full attention to the brand that outlasted the seat, without the pressure of a farewell tour he never chose to take.

Is Daniel Ricciardo coming back to racing?

The honest answer is the one Ricciardo keeps giving: not Formula 1, not yet — but he won’t close the door completely.

Statements about a possible return

• Ricciardo has said he is not actively pursuing an F1 return.
• He has not ruled out racing in other categories.
• His 2026 Indianapolis 500 appearance reignited paddock talk about a comeback.

If ‘coming back’ means F1, the answer is no — not in any active sense. If it means racing anywhere, in any series, the door stays open. Ricciardo has deliberately left it that way, and his Indianapolis 500 visit gave the rumor mill a reason to spin: he described the trip as a way to stay connected to motorsport from outside the driver’s seat.

Rumors of interest from other series

• No confirmed plans for a comeback in any series have been announced.
• Fan speculation spikes with every paddock appearance.
• Ford Racing’s ambassadorship keeps him connected to the people who fund race programs (Motorsport.com (motorsport publication)).

The absence of news is itself a signal. No credible reports have tied him to an IndyCar seat, a sports car program, or a GT entry — only the general sense that he hasn’t ruled it out. That silence suggests the open question is real, not strategic.

Current stance

Right now, his public stance is consistent: not chasing F1, not closing the door on racing entirely, and visibly energized by the brands he’s building. The catch: any return would have to beat the alternative — and the Enchanté era is already working, so a comeback would need to offer more than nostalgia, or it would just be a slower goodbye.

Is Max Verstappen still friends with Daniel Ricciardo?

Yes — and the friendship has survived something most teammate relationships don’t: the power shift.

Red Bull teammates history

• Verstappen and Ricciardo were Red Bull teammates from 2016 to 2018.
• Across his full Red Bull run (2014–2018), Ricciardo took seven wins and 29 podiums.
• Their wheel-to-wheel battles became part of Red Bull’s modern identity.

Their Red Bull years were a study in contrast: Verstappen, the teenage prodigy with ice in his veins; Ricciardo, the senior driver who looked like he was having the time of his life. The racing was fierce, especially in 2017 and 2018, and the friendship never cracked.

That’s rarer than it sounds. Teammates in a top team are each other’s biggest rivals, and the list of partnerships that ended in anger is long. This one didn’t.

Public interactions after Ricciardo’s departure

• Both drivers have spoken warmly about each other in interviews since 2018.
• Ricciardo’s 2023 return to Red Bull as a reserve driver put them back in the same garage.
• No public falling out has ever been reported.

The 2023 reserve role turned the friendship from memory into routine. Ricciardo was back in the same team environment, around the same engineers, and the same teammate who had once pushed him to the limit.

Neither driver has ever suggested the closeness faded. The absence of a feud — in a sport that feeds on drama — is its own kind of evidence.

Recent comments and social media

• Verstappen has publicly praised Ricciardo’s talent and personality.
• Ricciardo speaks about Verstappen with genuine respect.
• Their social media interactions stay friendly — no edge, no distance.

What’s notable is that the warmth has survived the career change. Verstappen is at the peak of the sport; Ricciardo is building a brand outside it. The relationship hasn’t turned awkward, and neither man has given anyone a reason to write a feud headline.

The implication: in a paddock that manufactures rivalries for content, the Ricciardo–Verstappen friendship is the rare genuine article — proof that competition and affection can share the same garage.

Career timeline

Eight entries, one pattern: the peaks came in the Red Bull years, and the final stretch was a slow fade from the front of the grid.

What this means: Ricciardo’s career arc is unusually clear — every move after 2018 was an attempt to recapture the Red Bull magic, and the last chapter built something that didn’t need a steering wheel at all.

What’s confirmed, what’s still open

The balance between the two lists tells the real story: the industry knows exactly what Ricciardo has done, but nobody outside his inner circle knows what he’ll do next. That gap between confirmed facts and open questions is where comeback rumors live.

What they’re saying now

A few statements, pulled from recent coverage, explain the tone of Ricciardo’s exit and the confidence of his second act.

Racing Bulls chose Liam Lawson over Daniel Ricciardo for the remainder of the 2024 season — a decision that effectively ended Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career before any formal retirement announcement.

Racing Bulls, as reported by The Race

Ricciardo described Enchanté as a brand that grew out of his racing career but could outlive his career as a driver.

Daniel Ricciardo, as reported by GPFans

Ricciardo said the transition into directing shoots and working behind the camera felt intimidating.

Daniel Ricciardo, as reported by GPFans

Read together, the statements draw a clear line: the exit was imposed on him, but the reinvention is his own. That distinction — between what happened to Ricciardo and what he chose — is the whole story of his post-F1 life.

The neat version of Daniel Ricciardo’s story ends with a shoey and a grin. The real version is messier and more interesting: he was replaced before he was ready, he took a year to say goodbye officially, and he built a brand that converts a decade of goodwill into a durable business — all while leaving the racing door open just wide enough to stay relevant. For Ricciardo, the decision is clear: stay the course with Enchanté and treat any racing return as a bonus, not a plan — or risk becoming a nostalgia act in a sport that moves forward every weekend.

Frequently asked questions

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