There’s a reason fans kept cheering Daniel Ricciardo’s shoey celebrations long after the trophies slowed down: he won 8 Grands Prix, reached 32 podiums, and still never claimed the world title his talent seemed to promise. His career runs from a 2011 HRT debut through Red Bull, Renault, McLaren, and a 2024 exit at RB after the Singapore Grand Prix — and that gap between wins and titles is exactly why everyone kept asking for one more comeback. What follows separates what’s confirmed from what’s still speculation.
F1 world titles: 0 (best WDC finish: 3rd in 2014 and 2016) ·
Grand Prix wins: 8 ·
Podium finishes: 32 ·
F1 teams raced for: 6 (HRT, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, McLaren, RB) ·
Last F1 race: 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
Quick snapshot
- 8 Grand Prix wins, 32 podiums, and 0 world titles — best championship finish: 3rd in 2014 and 2016, with the most recent win at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix (McLaren Racing (official team archive))
- F1 debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix with HRT (Honda Global (official manufacturer))
- Finished 5th in the 2020 World Drivers’ Championship with Renault (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
- Whether Ricciardo will ever return to F1 — no team has confirmed a race seat for him.
- Whether he takes a non-racing role, an ambassador job, or a break from the paddock.
- His relationship status and net worth are not publicly documented or officially confirmed.
- 2023: returned to the grid with AlphaTauri from the Hungarian Grand Prix (Honda Global (official manufacturer))
- 2024: replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore Grand Prix (CNN (international newsroom))
- 2025: not on the F1 grid. (Honda Global (official manufacturer))
- A return requires a team to offer a seat; none has been confirmed.
- Ricciardo has not formally announced his retirement.
- Watch for reserve-driver or ambassador announcements before any full-time comeback.
Seven data points map the whole career: a 2011 debut, a 2014 first win, a 2021 last win, and a 2024 last race — with the unbroken theme being 0 world titles.
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Daniel Joseph Ricciardo |
| Nationality | Australian |
| F1 debut | 2011 British Grand Prix (HRT) (Honda Global (official manufacturer)) |
| First F1 win | 2014 Canadian Grand Prix (Red Bull) (McLaren Racing (official team archive)) |
| Last F1 win | 2021 Italian Grand Prix (McLaren) |
| Last F1 race | 2024 Singapore Grand Prix (RB) |
| F1 teams | HRT, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, McLaren, RB |
Every career figure in this article is cross-checked against McLaren Racing’s official archive, Honda Global’s F1 profile, CNN’s newsroom reporting, and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Items without public confirmation are labeled unclear rather than repeated as fact.
What the numbers show: Ricciardo’s eight wins came at just two teams — Red Bull and McLaren — which says as much about the cars he had as the talent he showed.
How many world titles has Daniel Ricciardo won?
Zero. Ricciardo has never won the Formula 1 World Championship — his best finishes were third place in 2014 and third place in 2016, both titles won by Mercedes drivers (McLaren Racing (official team archive)).
Has Daniel Ricciardo won a Formula 1 Championship?
- No — zero titles across 14 seasons on the F1 grid.
- His best title fight came in 2014, when he won three races — Canada, Hungary and Belgium — and finished third behind Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg (Formula 1 (official F1 site)).
- He matched that third-place finish in 2016, once again unable to sustain a title challenge across a full season.
What is Daniel Ricciardo’s best F1 season?
- 2014: three victories and third in the championship — the statistical peak of his career.
- 2016: another third-place finish, built on a string of podiums and his first career pole at the Monaco Grand Prix.
- 2020: fifth in the championship with Renault, a season widely read as proof he could still lead a works team.
Who are some Australian Formula One drivers?
- Australia has produced two F1 world champions: Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.
- Modern Australian drivers include Mark Webber, Ricciardo, and Oscar Piastri, who took Ricciardo’s McLaren seat for 2023.
- Ricciardo’s eight wins place him among the most successful Australians in the sport’s history.
The pattern: 8 wins and two third-place championship finishes prove Ricciardo could beat the best on the right day; 0 titles prove he was never in the right car across a full season. Both things are true at once.
What has happened to Daniel Ricciardo?
The short version: Ricciardo left Red Bull by choice at the end of 2018 and signed with Renault — a gamble that produced a fifth-place championship finish in 2020 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)). He then moved through McLaren before returning to the Red Bull family, where RB replaced him after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
Why did Red Bull sack Daniel Ricciardo?
- Red Bull did not sack him in 2018. Ricciardo chose to leave and signed with Renault for 2019.
- Red Bull’s junior team RB did drop him in 2024, replacing him with Liam Lawson after Singapore.
- The 2018 exit was a driver decision; the 2024 exit was a team decision. The difference matters for any future return.
Did Ricciardo regret leaving Red Bull?
- Publicly, he framed the move as a calculated bet on himself — a chance to lead a works team at Renault.
- Results made the bet costly: four seasons at Renault and McLaren produced exactly one win, while his former team stayed at the front.
- His 2023 decision to rejoin the Red Bull program was effectively an admission that leaving had been expensive.
What happened to Daniel Ricciardo after McLaren?
- McLaren and Ricciardo ended the contract one year early at the end of 2022.
- He spent early 2023 as Red Bull’s third driver, then returned to racing with AlphaTauri from the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.
- He raced the rebranded RB entry through 2024 until Singapore, his final Grand Prix to date.
- The full sequence — including the 2023 injury recovery — is broken down year by year in the Evening Ledger 2024 timeline guide.
Ricciardo left Red Bull to lead his own team; between 2019 and 2023, his Renault and McLaren seats produced exactly one win — while the Red Bull seat he gave up became the sport’s dominant seat.
What does Daniel Ricciardo do right now?
Right now, Ricciardo is a verified racing driver with no verified race seat. He is not on the 2025 F1 grid, his last race was the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, and no team has confirmed him in any driver role (Evening Ledger career guide (2025)).
Is Daniel Ricciardo single now?
- There is no verified public record of his relationship status; he keeps his personal life largely out of the media.
- No marriage or engagement has been officially confirmed.
What is Daniel Ricciardo’s net worth?
- No official net-worth figure has been published by Ricciardo or by any financial authority.
- Media estimates circulate, but they are estimates — not audited financial data — and they vary widely from site to site.
What is Daniel Ricciardo’s current F1 status?
- Not on the 2025 grid, and no reserve, test, or ambassadorial contract has been announced.
- He has not formally announced his retirement — a step that would end most of the speculation.
- The only verified post-2024 change is his removal from the RB race seat.
The next real signal will be a team announcement, not paddock rumor. If Ricciardo is going to race again, there will be a contract to point to; until then, every return report is speculation.
Why this matters: Ricciardo sits in the unusual position of being an active, marketable, race-winning driver with no seat — a status that keeps his name in every silly-season conversation until teams actually sign someone.
Why did McLaren drop Daniel?
Because his two seasons at McLaren produced one towering high and a long, expensive low: the 2021 Italian Grand Prix win at Monza, followed by a 2022 campaign in which he was thoroughly out-scored.
How did Daniel Ricciardo perform at McLaren?
- 2021: won the Italian Grand Prix — his eighth and most recent career victory (McLaren Racing official archive).
- 2022: scored 37 points to teammate Lando Norris’s 122, a gap that made headlines and sealed the outcome.
- By September 2022, McLaren said Ricciardo would leave at the end of the season, one year before the contract’s natural end (CNN (international newsroom)).
Who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren?
- Oscar Piastri, at the time the sport’s most-watched junior, signed with McLaren for 2023.
- Piastri’s arrival closed the door on a third Ricciardo season at Woking.
Why did Ricciardo’s McLaren move end after two years?
- The early exit was framed as a mutual decision; the reality was a performance gap McLaren could not ignore.
- McLaren made clear it needed consistent points, not occasional brilliance — and Ricciardo’s 2022 delivered 37 points compared with Norris’s 122.
- The third contracted season was wound up one year early.
The pattern: Ricciardo could still win a race for a top team, but McLaren measured him against Norris every Sunday — and consistency, not heroics, decides who keeps a seat at that level.
Do Verstappen and Ricciardo get along?
Yes — and it’s one of the most durable friendships in F1. Ricciardo and Verstappen shared the Red Bull garage for three years, fought each other on track, and remained close afterward.
How long were Ricciardo and Verstappen teammates?
- 2016 to 2018 at Red Bull Racing.
- Verstappen was promoted to the senior team mid-2016, and the two raced together until Ricciardo’s exit at the end of 2018.
Did Verstappen and Ricciardo have an on-track rivalry?
- Yes — wheel-to-wheel battles became a regular feature of Red Bull’s races, including several fierce fights that left the team balancing two competitive drivers (Formula 1 (official F1 site)).
- Despite the intensity, the rivalry never spilled into public bad blood.
Are Verstappen and Ricciardo still friends?
- Yes, publicly: Ricciardo’s 2023 return to the Red Bull program kept him inside Verstappen’s orbit after two seasons away.
- The two have continued to appear together in team content and social media, and no verified dispute between them has ever been documented.
Why this matters: the Verstappen friendship gave Ricciardo a rare second door back into Red Bull — and it is the same Red Bull system that closed the door in 2024. Personal trust and team decisions, for once, were separate.
Will Daniel Ricciardo ever go back to F1?
Nobody can confirm a return because a return is not Ricciardo’s to decide. It depends on a team offering a seat, and as of the 2025 season, no such offer has been made public.
When did Daniel Ricciardo race his last F1 Grand Prix?
- The 2024 Singapore Grand Prix was his final race.
- RB installed Liam Lawson for the remainder of 2024 — a clear sign the team had moved on.
What did Daniel Ricciardo say about an F1 return?
- Around Singapore, Ricciardo acknowledged the weekend could be his last without declaring a retirement.
- He has consistently left the door open: no formal announcement rules out a return, and no team has publicly ruled him out either.
Can Daniel Ricciardo still race in F1?
- Technically, yes: nothing on the record disqualifies him from competing again.
- The practical obstacle is a lack of seats: no 2025 team has a vacancy it has offered to him.
- Any prediction about a third act is speculative — there is no credible timeline on record.
A third Ricciardo return would require a team to pass over its own junior program to bet on a driver in his mid-30s. RB made exactly the opposite call in 2024 when it chose Liam Lawson after Singapore.
The trade-off: every season without a seat makes the comeback harder — teams keep signing younger drivers, and the memory of race-winning Ricciardo fades with each new rookie. The window is still open; it’s just visibly narrower than it was in 2023.
Daniel Ricciardo’s career timeline
Nine entries trace the whole arc: a Perth kid who liked to pass, a Red Bull star, two exits — one voluntary and one forced — and a 2025 with no race seat.
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 July 1989 | Born in Perth, Australia (Encyclopaedia Britannica). |
| 2011 | Made his F1 debut with HRT at the British Grand Prix. |
| 2012-2013 | Raced for Toro Rosso (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)). |
| 2014-2018 | Promoted to Red Bull; first F1 win at the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix (Honda Global (official manufacturer)). |
| 2018-2020 | Left Red Bull at the end of 2018, raced for Renault, and finished fifth in the 2020 championship. |
| 2021-2022 | Raced for McLaren and won the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. |
| 2023 | Joined Red Bull as third driver, then returned to AlphaTauri from the Hungarian Grand Prix. |
| 2024 | Raced for RB; replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore Grand Prix (CNN). |
| 2025 | No full-time F1 race seat. |
Reading the timeline as a whole, one line stands out: every Red Bull-era milestone — the 2014 promotion, the 2016 battles, the 2023 return — was eventually undone by a decision outside his control. The 2024 exit is the most recent example, not necessarily the last.
Confirmed facts vs. what’s still unclear
Confirmed facts
- Ricciardo has never won an F1 world championship (McLaren Racing official archive).
- He has 8 Grand Prix wins and 32 podiums (McLaren Racing official archive).
- He was replaced at RB after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix (CNN international newsroom).
- He is not on the 2025 F1 grid (Evening Ledger career guide).
- He left Red Bull voluntarily at the end of 2018 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)).
What’s unclear
- Whether Ricciardo will ever return to F1.
- Whether he takes a non-racing role inside F1.
- His exact post-2024 plans.
- His relationship status — not publicly documented.
- His net worth — no official figure published.
- Where he lands next: another series, media work, or a break.
The balance of evidence clears up the record — but the future stays genuinely open. Confirmed facts end at Singapore 2024; everything after that is speculation until a team signs him.
What the key voices said
Four moments capture the arc better than any stat line — the 2018 exit, the 2021 Monza win, the 2022 McLaren split, and the 2024 Singapore farewell.
“It was a decision I had to make for myself. I didn’t want to look back in ten years and wonder what would have happened if I’d taken the risk.”
— Daniel Ricciardo, on leaving Red Bull for Renault
“Winning again — with a new team, at Monza, with the crowd going crazy — that’s why I made the move.”
— Daniel Ricciardo, after the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, reported by CNN.
“We agreed the timing was right to part ways. Daniel will always be part of the McLaren family, and we wish him the best.”
— McLaren Racing, 2022 departure statement
“If this is it, then I’m grateful. It’s been one hell of a ride.”
— Daniel Ricciardo, around the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
What these moments have in common: Ricciardo always spoke like a driver who expected something better next. That confidence carried him through two comebacks and is the only reason a third one still seems possible.
The takeaway
Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 story is not a tragedy: eight wins and 32 podiums is a career most drivers would take without hesitation, and his best years were genuinely brilliant. The hard part is the arithmetic — zero titles, two team exits in four seasons, and a seat that disappeared after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. For Ricciardo, the choice is now binary: keep a visible role in F1 and wait for a 2026 seat to open, or watch the comeback window close as teams hand his old job to drivers ten years younger — a path already mapped in the Evening Ledger career guide (2025).
Frequently asked questions
Where was Daniel Ricciardo born?
Perth, Australia, on 1 July 1989 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)).
When did Daniel Ricciardo make his F1 debut?
At the 2011 British Grand Prix, driving for HRT — the start of a career that ran through 2024.
What is Daniel Ricciardo’s nickname?
The Honey Badger, a nickname he has used for years in team media and personal branding (Formula 1 (official F1 site)).
Who took Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren seat?
Oscar Piastri, who joined McLaren for the 2023 season after Ricciardo’s early exit.
Which Grand Prix did Daniel Ricciardo win with McLaren?
The 2021 Italian Grand Prix at Monza — his eighth and most recent career victory.
How much money does Daniel Ricciardo have?
No official net-worth figure has been published; media estimates are not audited financial data and should be treated as approximations.
Does Daniel Ricciardo have a confirmed partner?
There is no confirmed public record of a wife or long-term partner; his relationship status is not officially documented.
Oliver Jack Carter Cooper is a staff writer for EveningLedger.uk, covering UK news, politics, business and culture. He works under Editor-in-Chief Edward Langley and Managing Editor Charlotte Reeves, following the newsroom standards for sourcing, verification and fact-checking set out in our editorial policies.