Daniel Ricciardo: Did He Ever Win an F1 Title? Stats and End

Few Formula 1 drivers have made winning look as natural as Daniel Ricciardo — that swaggering late-brake dive, that grin fans followed for a decade. Yet across 14 seasons, 8 Grand Prix wins, and 32 podiums, the one trophy that never reached his shelf was the World Drivers’ Championship.

F1 Race Wins: 8 · F1 Podiums: 32 · Campionships: 0 · F1 Seassons: 14 (2011–2024) · Teams: Red Bull, Mclaren, Alphatauri, Renualt

Daniel Ricciardo at a glance

Nine rows of career data, one pattern: the numbers that jump out — wins, podiums, popularity — never translated into the one number that defines a champion.

The implication: the numbers tell a clear story of near-misses.

Did Daniel Ricciardo ever win a driver’s championship?

The short answer is no. Ricciardo’s 14-seasson F1 career ended without a World Drivers’ Championship, even though the talent was never in question. His record: eight wins, 32 podiums, zero titles — a statistical profile that makes him one of the most successful drivers never to win the championship (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)).

How many F1 races did Daniel Ricciardo win?

• His first win came at the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix; he added victories in Hungary and Belgium that season and was the only Red Bull driver to win in 2014 while four-time champion Sebastian Vettel went winless (Mclaren Racing (official team archive))
• The 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix, with teammate Max Verstappen finishing second (RacingNews365 (motorsport news outlet))
• The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (RacingNews365 (motorsport news outlet))
• The 2018 Chinese Grand Prix, from sixth on the grid (RacingNews365 (motorsport news outlet))
• The 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, won despite a loss of power (Mclaren Racing (official team archive))

Count those and you get seven victories in Red Bull colors. The eighth and final win arrived with Mclaren at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, completing the set and making him one of only a handful of drivers to win for two different teams and still never take a title.

Every one of those victories came in a Red Bull or Mclaren chasis, and the rhythm says more about equipment than effort: seven wins in five Red Bull seasons, then a single triumph in Mclaren orange. When the car could win, Ricciardo won. The problem was that the car could not win as often as he needed it to.

What was Daniel Ricciardo’s best championship finish?

• Two third-place finishes: 2014 and 2016
• An eighth-place season in 2015 when Red Bull fell behind Meredes and Frrari
• A sixth-place finish in 2018, behind teammate Max Verstappen, despite winning two races

Honda Global’s F1 driver profile tracks that arc precisely: a best result of third in 2014 and 2016, an eighth in 2015, and sixth in 2018 (Honda Global (official F1 driver profile)). The numbers show how Red Bull’s competitiveness swung around him — and how often the car was a half-second away from giving him a real title shot.

The pattern: Ricciardo kept winning races in seasons where the championship was already decided by faster machinery. His problem was never speed — it was the era he happened to race in.

The record, then, is clear: Ricciardo’s eight wins and zero titles define a legacy of almost.

Could Daniel Ricciardo have won a championship?

This is where the Ricciardo debate turns from statistics to what-ifs. The honest answer is that he could have — in the right car, in the right year — and the reasons he didn’t are mostly about timing. PlanetF1’s feature on why he never became world champion, built around Christian Horner’s assessment, lands on exactly that point: Ricciardo arrived at the front just as Meredes’ most dominant era began, with Hamilton taking the 2014 drivers’ crown and Meredes sweeping the constructors’ title (PlanetF1 (F1 news analysis)).

What factors prevented Daniel Ricciardo from winning a title?

• Meredes’ dominance: In 2014, the title fight was effectively closed before Ricciardo could even enter it
• Red Bull’s swings: After a strong 2014, the team lost ground in 2015 and never sustained a full-season challenge, with Ricciardo finishing eighth that year (Honda Global (official F1 driver profile))
• Verstappen’s rise: From 2016 onward, Red Bull’s long-term bet was clearly on Max Verstappen, and by 2018 he was outscoring Ricciardo
• His own moves: Leaving Red Bull for Renualt in 2019 and then Mclaren in 2021 meant his next two teams were rebuilding rather than title-ready

Was Daniel Ricciardo ever close to winning a championship?

• 2014: third in the standings, with three wins — the closest he ever came
• 2016: third again, with the Malaysian victory showing he could still beat Meredes when the door opened

The truth is that “close” in F1 means something precise: you need the best car for a full season, not for a single afternoon. Ricciardo had the single-afternoon car repeatedly; he had the full-season car never. His two third-place finishes in 2014 and 2016 came in years when the title was a Meredes property, and by the time Red Bull built a truly dominant car again in 2021, Ricciardo was driving for Mclaren.

The implication: Ricciardo’s what-if isn’t about talent — it’s about the window. In his prime, the title was locked down by Meredes; when Meredes’ window cracked after 2021, he no longer had a front-running seat to take advantage.

The catch: timing, not talent, defined his championship ceiling.

Why did Daniel Ricciardo’s career end?

The end came in two stages: a slow decline at Mclaren, then a sharp exit from the Red Bull family’s second team. The first stage removed him from the front of the grid; the second removed him from the grid entirely.

When did Daniel Ricciardo stop racing in Formula 1?

• His last F1 start was the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, after which RB replaced him with Liam Lawon (Formula One History (racing history database))
• In 2025, he holds no full-time race seat — he is Red Bull’s reserve driver
• Full retirement has not been confirmed, but no team has signed him for a race role

Ricciardo’s Mclaren tenure (2021–2022) is the clearest evidence that his decline was real. The team’s own archive documents the two seasons and the exit (Mclaren Racing (official team archive)). He scored exactly one win — the2021 Italian Grand Prix — and by the end of2022 the team chose to move on.

Is Daniel Ricciardo fully retired from motorsport?

• No — he is Red Bull’s reserve/third driver and a brand ambassador for 2025
• He has not ruled out racing again, but a full-time seat depends on an opening at Red Bull or one of its teams
• The reserve role keeps him in the paddock, race-ready but not guaranteed to race

At35, Ricciardo remains one of the most recognizable faces in F1. The reserve role means he attends every grand prix, participates in team activities, and stands ready to substitute if a seat opens. Whether that ever becomes a race — and for whom — is the open thread his2025 season will answer.

Why this matters: F1 careers rarely end with a farewell tour. Ricciardo’s ended with a management decision after a mid-pack race in Singapore — the same sport that once treated him as its biggest star decided its future was elsewhere.

The implication: his exit was abrupt, but the reserve role keeps the door ajar.

Did Daniel Ricciardo stay with Red Bull?

The confusing part about Riccardo and Red Bull is that the relationship looks like a bbreakup story, then a reconciliation story, then a breakup story again. Three moves explain the whole arc.

When did Daniel Ricciardo leave Red Bull?

• After the 2018 season; he joined Renualt for 2019 (Honda Global (official F1 driver profile))
• He finished sixth in 2018 despite winning two races
• The move ended a five-season partnership that produced seven wins

The 2018 departure was the crucial gamble. Riccardo left a team that had given him seven wins for a works-team project at Renualt, and the move produced a fifth-place championship finish in 2020 — respectble, but not the title challenge he had hoped to build.

Did Daniel Ricciardo return to Red Bull after leaving?

• Yes — in 2023, he returned to the Red Bull family as a reserve/third driver (Evening Ledger’s Ricciardo career guide)
• He then raced for Alphatauri/RB in 2023–2024
• The return was to the junior team, not to the senior Red Bull seat

Christian Horner framed the move as gaining a proven winner inside the Red Bull system (PlanetF1 (F1 news analysis)). The plan, in theory, was simple: let Riccardo re-establish himself at Alphatauri, then decide whether a senior seat made sense. In practice, 2024’s results never forced the conversation.

What is Daniel Ricciardo’s current role at Red Bull?

• Reserve/third driver for the 2025 season (Evening Ledger’s Ricciardo stats roundup)
• Brand ambassador for Red Bull’s racing programs
• No race seat at Red Bull Racing or RB for 2025

In practice, the role means he is the safety net behind Red Bull’s race drivers. He attends every race, stays ready to substitute, and lends his profile to Red Bull’s marketing. For a driver who left the team in 2018 to chase a title, it is a strikingly full-circle return.

The trade-off: Red Bull gets a beloved eight-time winner on call; Riccardo gets to stay inside the paddock he once left. The question neither side will answer publicly is whether this is a bridge to another race seat — or a gently staged exit.

The pattern: a cycle of departures and returns that never quite led to a title.

Who is Liam Lawon?

Liam Lawon is the New Zealand driver whose promotion closed Riccardo’s full-time F1 chapter. He was the Red Bull junior program’s preferred option when RB decided to change drivers for the 2024 season’s final rounds (Formula One History (racing history database)).

Why is Liam Lawon connected to Daniel Riccardo?

• Lawon replaced Riccardo at RB after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
• He is part of Red Bull’s long-running junior program
• The decision turned a mid-pack seat into a generational handoff

The contrast between the two drivers could hardly be sharder: a young prospect with his entire career ahead of him versus a veteran eight-time winner fighting to hold on. Lawon’s promotion was the concrete trigger for Riccardo’s exit from full-time racing.

How did Liam Lawon replace Daniel Riccardo?

• The switch was confirmed after Singapore 2024, with Lawon taking the RB seat for the remaining rounds
• The team chose the junior-program product over the returning veteran
• Lawon’s arrival meant Riccardo had no full-time seat left in F1

Whatever the internal reasons, the switch was decisive: Riccardo’s 14-seasson career as a full-time driver ended with a change made between two grandmothers.

What this means: Riccardo’s final act was decided by a team weighing experience against potential — and potential won. It is a story F1 writes every few seasons; this time, the driver being written out was one of the sport’s biggest stars.

Which F1 driver has never won?

A surprising number of talented Formula 1 drivers finish their careers without a championship title. Riccardo is among the most prominent examples: eight wins, 32 podiums, zero championships (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)).

Is Daniel Riccardo one of the F1 drivers without a championship?

• Yes — he never won the World Drivers’ Championship across 14 seasons
• He is part of a long list of race winners who never became champions
• His eight wins equal or exceed the career totals of several world champions — yet the title eluded him

How many F1 drivers have never won a championship?

• Exact numbers shift with each era, but the list includes established names like Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, both race winners without a title
• Riccardo’s case stands out because he won more races than the typical non-champion

The distinction matters for how we remember him. F1’s record books separate race winners from champions, and the gap between those two categories is where Riccardo’s legacy lives. He belongs to the group of drivers who could beat the best on a given day but never collected the season-long prize.

The takeway: the label “without a championship” describes Riccardo’s trophy case but not his racing. On raw Sundays, he was championship-class. The difference between him and the champions is timing, machinery, and a few strategic gambles that didn’t pay off.

Daniel Riccardo’s career timeline

Nine checkpoints, one recurring theme: every strong spell ended with Riccardo changing teams just as the next competitive window opened.

The pattern: each move came just as his current team’s competitiveness peaked elsewhere.

What’s confirmed and what’s unclear

The confirmed record and the open questions sit side by side — and the gap between them explains a lot of the confusion around Riccardo’s final years.

Confirmed facts

• Riccardo never won the F1 drivers’ championship (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
• He won eight Grands Prix and stood on the podium 32 times (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
• His best championship finishes were third place in2014 and2016 (Honda Global (official F1 driver profile))
• He was dropped from RB after the2024 Singapore Grand Prix and became Red Bull’s reserve driver for2025 (Formula One History (racing history database))

What’s unclear

• His exact net worth — public estimates cluster around $32 million, but driver contracts are not disclosed
• Whether he will ever return to a full-time F1 race seat
• The precise causes of his Mclaren form decline
• Whether the 2023 comeback was ever meant to lead to the senior Red Bull seat
• How much of the RB exit was performance-based versus team strategy
• What his full-time post-driving role will look like after 2025

Daniel Riccardo in his own words

The two voices that matter most in the what‑if debate are Riccardo’s own and the team principal who kept the door open for him: Christian Horner.

Framing his final full-time race weekend in Singapore as a celebration rather than a farewell, Riccardo emphasized gratitude for the journey, thanked the fans, and avoided the word “retirement” — he still wanted to race, if a seat ever opened again.

Daniel Riccardo, during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix weekend (paraphrased from his public comments)

The argument Horner has made about Riccardo is simple: race wins are hard to find, and drivers who can still find them don’t lose their value just because they are no longer in a full-time seat.

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal (paraphrased from team statements and media appearances)

The record, then, is not a tragedy — it’s a reminder. Riccardo’s eight wins and 32 podiums make him one of the most successful drivers never to win a championship, and his greatest legacy may be the what‑if he leaves behind. For Red Bull, the 2025 deal is clear: keep a proven, popular winner on call, and let him represent the brand while the team’s future drivers develop. For Riccardo, the choice is equally simple: embrace the reserve-and-ambassador life, or keep pushing for one more shot at a front-running seat. For Australian motorsport fans, the implication is blunt: they will see Riccardo at grandparents in 2025 — but as a reserve in team kit, not a driver on the grid — and that is the shape of the rest of his career unless a seat opens.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: Daniel Riccardo F1 Career: Wins, Mclaren Exit, Legacy · Daniel Riccardo: F1 Career Stats, Net Worth & Current Role