Few drivers made a bad day in Formula 1 look as fun as Daniel Ricciardo. For more than a decade, the Australian known as the Honey Badger turned podiums into parties — and in September 2025 he confirmed what many fans had suspected: his racing days are over, with Ford Racing introducing him as a global ambassador. Here’s what happened, why he left the grid, and what he’s building now.
Born: 1 July 1989 ·
F1 career: 2011–2024 ·
Grand Prix wins: 8 ·
Podiums: 32 ·
Nickname: The Honey Badger ·
Current role: Ford Racing ambassador
Quick snapshot
- Ricciardo raced in F1 from 2011 to 2024, a 14-season career according to fan-focused F1 outlet GPfans.
- He won eight Grands Prix and scored 32 podiums, per sports broadcaster ESPN.
- His final race was the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix with RB, as reported by motorsport publisher Motorsport.com Australia.
- Whether he takes a non-racing F1 role, such as development driver or brand ambassador.
- What a full-time schedule looks like now that racing is over.
- How deep the Ford Raptor partnership runs beyond promotional work.
- RB moved Liam Lawson into his seat for the final races of 2024, a swap confirmed by motorsport site Crash.net.
- Ricciardo set the fastest lap at his final Grand Prix, per PlanetF1.
- In September 2025 he confirmed his racing days were over alongside the Ford news, per Ford Racing.
- A global Ford Racing ambassador role focused on the Raptor brand and lifestyle, announced by the automaker’s official racing arm Ford Racing.
- Founder of Enchante, plus a Tailgate venture with Dabble and MMA training with Blessed MMA and EA Sports UFC, as detailed by PlanetF1.
Seven rows, one pattern: the official record of a driver whose results and personality shipped in equal measure.
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 July 1989 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| F1 career | 2011–2024 |
| Nickname | The Honey Badger |
| Grand Prix record | 8 wins, 32 podiums, 3 pole positions |
| Latest F1 team | RB |
| Current role | Ford Racing ambassador |
What has happened to Daniel Ricciardo?
The cleanest way to read Ricciardo’s career is as a before-and-after story. Before September 2024, he was a Formula 1 driver. After it, he was a former driver with a calendar full of projects.
When did Daniel Ricciardo leave F1?
- Final F1 race: 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, driving for RB.
- Replaced by: Liam Lawson, who took the seat for the final races of 2024.
- Retirement confirmed: September 2025, alongside the Ford Racing announcement.
The gap between the second line and the third is where most of the confusion lives. Ricciardo did not get a farewell race; he got a driver change, and the goodbye only became explicit when the Ford deal was announced the following year.
That timing shaped everything. A retirement announcement usually looks backward at a career. Ricciardo’s looked forward to a new role, which is why it read less like an ending and more like a handover.
What was Daniel Ricciardo’s final Formula 1 race?
Ricciardo’s last Grand Prix was not a farewell tour. He set the fastest lap of the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix and still left without a seat for the next round.
The Singapore weekend captured his career in miniature: the pace flashed, the result did not follow, and the mood in the paddock was already turning toward the future. In post-race interviews, Ricciardo acknowledged that it was not the farewell he had imagined.
What he did not do was announce retirement. That word would not attach to him officially for another year, by which time the paddock had already moved on.
What are Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career highlights?
- Eight wins, 32 podiums and three pole positions, spread across stints at Red Bull Racing and McLaren.
- A nickname — The Honey Badger — that outran his results and made him the paddock’s most recognisable smile.
- A shoey-perfect blend of speed and personality that turned every podium into a moment.
The numbers put him in a select group. Eight wins is a strong career by any modern measure, and the way he won — late braking, around the outside, grinning — made the results feel bigger than the count.
Why has Daniel Ricciardo left F1?
The honest answer is that the team moved first. Ricciardo did not leave because his body or motivation gave out; RB left him because it wanted a different option for the final races of 2024.
What led to the driver swap at RB?
- RB replaced Ricciardo with Liam Lawson after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, ending his season early.
- The decision followed a difficult 2024 campaign with the sister team, where the comeback never produced consistent results.
- Lawson, already waiting in the wings, became the obvious in-house option for 2025.
The awkward part is that Ricciardo had done exactly what the team asked by returning to the Red Bull family in 2023. He rebuilt himself at AlphaTauri/RB, earned a full-time seat for 2024, and then watched the results slip away.
Once RB chose Lawson, Ricciardo had no route back into the Red Bull programme. The retirement, when it came, was framed as a new beginning rather than an ending.
Did Daniel Ricciardo choose to leave F1 or was he dropped?
A driver who retires controls the story. A driver who is replaced watches the team set it. Ricciardo’s own confirmation did not arrive until September 2025.
The structural answer is that he was dropped. Ricciardo announced nothing at Singapore, and RB framed the change as its own decision. The retirement was his, but it came a year later, once the new role was ready.
What did Red Bull say about Ricciardo’s exit?
- Red Bull’s junior squad announced that Lawson would race for the remainder of 2024.
- No path back to a race seat was offered, even though the wording left the door technically open.
The statement did what F1 statements do: it thanked the outgoing driver, explained the new one, and looked ahead. It was a polite version of a hard decision, and the paddock read it that way.
Is Daniel Ricciardo retiring from F1?
Yes, with an important qualification: the retirement was confirmed nearly a year after he lost his seat. In F1 terms, he was gone before he was retired.
Has Daniel Ricciardo announced his retirement?
- ESPN reported on 5 September 2025 that Ricciardo had confirmed his racing days were over, and noted offers from IndyCar and NASCAR after his F1 exit (ESPN).
- The confirmation accompanied the Ford Racing deal, which gave him a new role rather than an empty seat.
The word “racing” matters. Ricciardo did not say he was leaving motorsport entirely; he said his days of driving were over. That leaves room for ambassadorial, media and development work.
There is no evidence he accepted the IndyCar or NASCAR offers. The decision, as reported, was to stop racing, not to go racing somewhere else.
Will Daniel Ricciardo return to F1?
- No plan for a return to an F1 race seat has been announced.
- The offers he fielded were from IndyCar and NASCAR, not from F1 teams.
- A non-racing role — development driver, ambassador or broadcaster — remains possible but unconfirmed.
That is what makes his situation unusual. Ricciardo is retired from driving but still employed by racing, which keeps the door open without anyone having to walk through it.
What did Daniel Ricciardo say about his F1 future?
Ricciardo described his Ford ambassadorship as a way to stay connected to motorsport. Not “I’m done with cars” — “I’m done driving them.”
That framing gave him an exit with a future attached. He did not disappear after the last race; he moved into a boardroom, a gym and a content studio.
The distinction: leaving F1 was a team decision; retiring from racing was his. The gap between them explains why fans still argue about what actually happened.
What is Ricciardo doing now?
Ricciardo’s post-F1 life looks less like retirement and more like a relaunch. The race seat is gone; the schedule appears to have expanded.
What is Daniel Ricciardo’s role with Ford?
- Global Ford Racing ambassador, announced in September 2025.
- The role centres on the Raptor brand and its lifestyle, apart from Ford’s Formula 1 programme.
- He described the partnership as a way to stay connected to the sport.
For Ford, the logic is simple: Ricciardo is one of the few F1 drivers whose name travels beyond race fans. For Ricciardo, it is a job that keeps him inside motorsport without a cockpit.
Outside Ford, the portfolio keeps growing. He founded Enchante, his clothing brand, and runs a Tailgate venture with Dabble. Each project runs on the same fuel — his face, his name, and the goodwill built over 14 seasons.
What is Daniel Ricciardo’s current training routine?
- Regular MMA sessions at Blessed MMA.
- A partnership with EA Sports UFC that blends training with content production.
The training has a familiar Ricciardo signature: intense preparation, playful presentation, and cameras everywhere.
What this means: Ricciardo’s value always ran beyond his win count. Ford and his other partners are formalising what the paddock already knew.
Is Max Verstappen still friends with Daniel Ricciardo?
By every public signal, yes. The friendship outlasted their time as teammates and survived Ricciardo’s exit from the Red Bull programme.
How did Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen become friends?
- They were teammates at Red Bull Racing, where their partnership became one of the paddock’s most-watched relationships (Crash.net).
- Their personalities complemented each other: Verstappen’s blunt intensity against Ricciardo’s easy humour.
The bond formed during the Red Bull years and never depended on a shared contract. Both have spoken warmly about each other in interviews since.
Do Max and Daniel still talk after the F1 exit?
- No verified falling-out has ever been reported.
- Ricciardo has continued to support Verstappen publicly since leaving the grid.
For fans of that Red Bull era, the friendship is part of the lore. It survived team changes, a driver swap within the same family, and the awkwardness of one friend watching the other keep winning.
The trade-off: the friendship stayed intact because it was never conditional on a shared garage.
Daniel Ricciardo’s career timeline
Six dates, one arc: from debut to ambassadorship, with a driver change in the middle that read like an ending.
- 2011 — Ricciardo made his Formula 1 debut, per fan-focused F1 outlet GPfans.
- 2014 — He won his first Grand Prix with Red Bull Racing, reported by Motorsport.com Australia.
- 2021 — He joined McLaren and won the Italian Grand Prix, a season Crash.net covers in its career retrospective.
- 2023 — He returned to the Red Bull family as a driver for AlphaTauri/RB, per Motorsport.com Australia.
- Late 2024 — RB announced Liam Lawson would replace him for the final races, as reported by RacingNews365.
- 2025 — He confirmed his racing career was over and became a global Ford Racing ambassador, announced by Ford Racing.
The arc: a fast rise, a long comeback, and an exit that became a launch. Not many drivers get a second act this tidy.
What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear
Confirmed facts
- Ricciardo raced in F1 from 2011 to 2024 (GPfans).
- He won eight Grands Prix and took 32 podiums (ESPN).
- His final race was the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix with RB.
- RB replaced him with Liam Lawson for the final races of 2024 (RacingNews365).
- Ford named him Global Ford Racing Ambassador in September 2025.
What’s unclear
- Whether he takes a non-racing F1 role, such as development driver or paddock ambassador.
- What his full-time schedule looks like now that racing is over.
- Whether the IndyCar and NASCAR offers were real options or rumour.
- How the Ford Raptor partnership develops beyond the announcement.
- How much media and content work he takes on in 2026.
The takeaway: the confirmed facts are solid; the open questions are about scope, not character.
What the coverage said
The headlines around Ricciardo’s announcement were unusually direct, because the news itself was final.
Daniel Ricciardo confirms motorsport retirement as major announcement made
Daniel Ricciardo: post-F1 sponsorships and retirement
The pattern: even in retirement, Ricciardo’s news arrives with a product attached. The retirement was the headline; the Ford deal was the context.
The bigger picture
The easy reading of Ricciardo’s exit was sad: a popular driver squeezed out of a midfield team. The fuller reading is different. He left with eight wins, a global ambassadorship, a clothing brand, a Tailgate venture and an MMA routine — a portfolio most retirees would envy. For fans, the choice is clear: mourn the cockpit, or enjoy the show he is still putting on.
Related reading: Daniel Ricciardo: F1 Career, Retirement and Life After Racing · Daniel Ricciardo: What happened, what he’s doing now & F1 future
Frequently asked questions
How many Formula 1 wins does Daniel Ricciardo have?
Ricciardo won eight Grands Prix during his F1 career, with victories for Red Bull Racing and McLaren.
Which F1 teams did Daniel Ricciardo drive for?
He drove for Red Bull Racing, Red Bull’s sister teams (AlphaTauri and RB), and McLaren across his F1 career.
Why is Daniel Ricciardo called the Honey Badger?
The nickname comes from the honey badger’s reputation for tenacity. It matched Ricciardo’s fearless overtaking style and his willingness to take on bigger names.
Who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at RB in 2024?
Liam Lawson replaced Ricciardo at RB for the final races of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
What is the shoey Daniel Ricciardo made famous?
The shoey is Ricciardo’s podium celebration: drinking from his racing boot after a strong result. It became one of F1’s most recognisable rituals.
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.