Daniel Ricciardo: Why His F1 Career Ended and 2026 Plans

There aren’t many Formula 1 drivers whose exit made fans sadder than their win tally suggested — Daniel Ricciardo always raced on personality as much as pace. His final F1 appearance came at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, and Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls replaced him with Liam Lawson, ending a career that mixed eight wins with relentless fan devotion.

Grand Prix wins: 8 · Podium finishes: 32 · F1 seasons: 13 (2011–2024) · Date of birth: 1 July 1989 · Nationality: Australian

Seven facts, one gap: every row of Ricciardo’s record looks solid — except the one that matters most.

What is Daniel Ricciardo doing now in 2026?

In 2026, Ricciardo is no longer a Formula 1 driver — but he is also not gone. The year looks less like a retirement and more like a carefully managed landing.

Post-F1 career activities

• Ricciardo spent 2025 largely away from racing, using the time to reflect on his career
• He has said the ending was decided for him, not by him

That combination — an enforced exit followed by a year of distance — is unusual for a driver in his mid-thirties, and it shapes how he talks about racing now.

Brand ambassador roles

• His most visible work now sits outside the cockpit: Ford ambassadorship and lifestyle projects

The shift fits a driver who was always as famous for the “shoey” podium celebration as for his overtaking.

Possible racing in other series

• Ricciardo has expressed interest in endurance racing and other motorsport categories beyond F1

No deal has been announced, and his 2026 focus appears to be on ambassadorial work rather than a race seat. The pattern: Ricciardo’s F1 exit was decided for him, but his post-racing career is being built on exactly what the grid is losing — his personality.

Why did Daniel Ricciardo’s career end?

The short answer: he did not retire so much as get replaced. The longer answer involves a performance slump, a comeback that never fully clicked, and a team that read the data coldly.

Performance decline after 2021

• At McLaren, Ricciardo struggled to match teammate Lando Norris in 2022 and finished 11th in the championship
• He later described exhaustion and a loss of performance confidence as factors in the end of his F1 career

The contrast between his public cheerfulness and his private confidence struggles was one of the hardest parts for fans to watch.

McLaren departure

• He left McLaren at the end of 2022 and became a Red Bull reserve driver

The McLaren exit was the turning point: from then on, Ricciardo was always racing to prove he still belonged.

Red Bull return and second stint at AlphaTauri

• The comeback lasted roughly a year before his replacement after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
• He replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri midway through 2023

That single year contained both the hopeful version of Ricciardo and the exhausted one.

Final season with RB and replacement

• His final season with Racing Bulls ended with six races still remaining on the 2024 calendar
• There was no formal on-track farewell event

The news broke after the Singapore weekend, and Ricciardo went from “racing next week” to “replaced” without a proper send-off.

The implication: Ricciardo’s career ended the way many modern F1 careers do — not with a decision from the driver, but from a team reading the data.

Has Daniel Ricciardo won a F1 Championship?

The honest answer is short: no. The more useful answer is that he came closer than most drivers ever get without the title.

Championship record

• Zero world championships across his F1 career
• Formula 1 counts eight Grand Prix wins — seven with Red Bull and the 2021 Italian Grand Prix with McLaren
• 32 podium finishes in total

Those numbers put him clearly among the best drivers of his generation, while also explaining why the title debate never really included him.

Best championship finish

• Third place in the drivers’ championship in 2014 and 2016

Both of those seasons came at Red Bull, the team where most of his career highlights were produced.

Comparison with other Australian champions

• Australia has produced multiple world champions, including Jack Brabham and Alan Jones
• Ricciardo is one of several Australian drivers who won races but never claimed the title

The gap between race wins and a championship shows how high the ceiling is in Formula 1 for drivers outside the truly dominant teams. What this means: no title, but a highlight reel most champions would envy — and a fan connection that never depended on the standings.

Who are some Australian Formula One drivers?

Australia has produced a small but influential line of Formula 1 drivers — and Ricciardo is the most famous of the modern group.

Jack Brabham

• One of Australia’s Formula 1 world champions

For older fans, Brabham is the standard every Australian driver since has been measured against.

Alan Jones

• An Australian Formula 1 world champion from the sport’s earlier decades

Jones kept the door open for the next generation and remains a reference point in Australian motorsport.

Mark Webber

• A fixture of the grid who connected the champion era with today’s generation

Webber’s era made Australian F1 support a habit, which made Ricciardo’s arrival feel natural.

Daniel Ricciardo

• Eight Grand Prix wins across his Formula 1 career

He is one of the most successful Australian drivers in F1 history, and the most popular of his generation.

Oscar Piastri

• The current Australian driver on the Formula 1 grid

Piastri carries the flag now, which means the Ricciardo era has already shifted into memory faster than fans expected.

Why this matters: every generation of Australian F1 fans has had a home-team driver to follow, and Ricciardo made that relationship the most entertaining it has ever been.

Who is the most unlucky F1 driver?

There is no official stat for bad luck, but in fan debates Ricciardo’s name comes up more than most.

Ricciardo’s misfortune in key moments

• He is often cited as unlucky because of the timing of his team changes and recurring technical issues
• His move to Renault coincided with McLaren’s resurgence, and his return to Red Bull led to a demotion
• His final race weekend turned into a quiet exit rather than a farewell

The bad luck was rarely about pace — it was about being in the wrong team at the wrong time.

Other candidates (e.g., Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso)

• Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso are also regularly named in the same debate, with careers shaped by timing and team changes

What separates Ricciardo’s case is the combination: a popular driver, bad timing, and a quiet ending that left fans wanting more. The catch: the same misfortunes that cost him wins made him the driver fans most wanted to see win.

Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career: a timeline

Eight moments, one pattern: every high was followed by a reset — and the resets got harder.

The pattern: Ricciardo’s career was a cycle of reinvention — and the last reinvention ran out of time.

Daniel Ricciardo: what we know and what we don’t

Confirmed facts

• His final F1 race was the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
• He has eight Grand Prix wins
• He never won a world championship
• After leaving McLaren, he returned to the Red Bull junior-team structure in 2023

What’s unclear

• Whether he has retired from motorsport entirely: reports in September 2025 said he had stopped racing at 36, but no official confirmation has followed
• His exact net worth: estimates vary widely and no verified figure has been published
• His relationship status: reports have linked him to Heidi Berger, but Ricciardo has never confirmed the relationship
• His total F1 start count: reported at 257 starts across 14 seasons, a figure that depends on how partial seasons are counted
• Whether he will race again: he has spoken about endurance racing, but no program has been announced

What this means: the gap between what is confirmed and what is rumored is exactly where Ricciardo’s 2026 story still lives.

The voices around Ricciardo’s exit

Ricciardo said he was grateful the Red Bull organisation made the decision to end his F1 career, because walking away voluntarily would have been difficult.

Daniel Ricciardo, on his F1 exit, as reported by Formula 1 (the sport’s official website)

The West Australian reported that Ricciardo’s final season ended without a formal on-track farewell event.

The West Australian (Perth-based newspaper)

Ricciardo has also described exhaustion and a loss of performance confidence as two factors in the end of his Formula 1 career, noting that the Red Bull organisation made the decision for him.

The implication: even at the end, Ricciardo’s public composure did more for his legacy than his results ever did.

The Ricciardo effect

Ricciardo leaves Formula 1 with eight wins, 32 podiums, and zero championships — but the numbers were never the real story. His imprint is cultural: he turned the podium celebration into a personality event, made the shoey famous, and gave Australian fans a driver they loved to argue about like family. For the next Australian to reach F1, the benchmark has changed — they will be compared not just to his eight wins, but to his ability to make the whole paddock smile, which is a far harder target. For teams evaluating drivers, the Ricciardo era leaves one clear lesson: personality keeps you in the conversation, but the data decides when it ends.

Frequently asked questions