Daniel Ricciardo: 8 F1 Wins, Net Worth, and Reserve Role

Few drivers in Formula 1 have pulled off the same trick as Daniel Ricciardo: staying impossible to ignore, even when he is not on the podium. Over a race career that ran from 2011 to the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix (Motorsport.com), he won eight Grands Prix, collected 32 podiums, and built a following that outgrew both numbers — this is the record, the wrong turns, and what actually comes next.

Full name: Daniel Joseph Ricciardo ·
Born: July 1, 1989 ·
F1 wins: 8 ·
F1 podiums: 32 ·
F1 starts: 257 ·
Current role: Reserve driver, Red Bull

Eight rows, one pattern: the first columns are the record he built at Red Bull; the final row is where the story sits today.

Did Daniel Ricciardo ever win F1?

Yes — and the win count is the reason the rest of his career narrative feels so strange. Ricciardo is often described as the grid’s most talented “wasted” driver, a label that only works because the talent was so clearly real.

How many F1 races has Daniel Ricciardo won?

• 8 wins in 257 starts — seven for Red Bull, one for McLaren at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix (Formula 1 (official F1 record))
• 32 podiums on top of those wins
• No world championship title

That places him in a small group: most F1 drivers spend entire careers chasing a single win. Ricciardo did it eight times, yet the number that follows him around is the championship count — zero.

Has Daniel Ricciardo won a world championship?

• No. He never won the F1 World Championship.
• His best championship result was third place, which he achieved twice

The two third-place finishes came during the Red Bull years. For context, that was the same era in which one team dominated every title fight — Ricciardo’s results have to be read against that backdrop, not in isolation.

What was Ricciardo’s best F1 season?

• 2014: first year with Red Bull, first F1 wins, instant front-running form
• 2018: wins at Monaco and in China, plus a series of late-braking overtakes that became part of his signature
• Both third-place championship finishes came in the Red Bull years

Combine those seasons and the portrait is consistent: Ricciardo was a front-runner whenever the car allowed it, and a crowd favorite even when it did not.

The pattern: his peak was real, but it overlapped with the most dominant machine era of the modern grid. The driver improved; the title never arrived.

The implication: the story of Ricciardo’s career is as much about timing as about talent.

What does Daniel Ricciardo do right now?

He is the reserve driver at Red Bull Racing — official, paid, and still very much part of the F1 circus. But the role puts him in a strange position: close enough to race, yet not racing.

Did Daniel Ricciardo return to Formula 1?

• Yes — he rejoined the Red Bull organization as a reserve or third driver for 2023, then replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri midway through the season (Formula 1 (official analysis))
• The return came after months of speculation and a tyre test that put him back in a Red Bull car

The comeback story wrote itself: a beloved former winner returns to the family that made him, gets a mid-season shot, and reminds everyone what he can do. The actual comeback was shorter and more painful.

What is Ricciardo’s role at Red Bull?

• Reserve and third driver: simulator work, testing sessions and commercial activities (Daniel Ricciardo: F1 Career, Wins, and Reserve Role (2024))
• Available to step in at short notice if a regular driver cannot race

That mix of engineering and marketing is unusual. Most reserve drivers do the simulator work without the sponsorship weight; Ricciardo brings both.

Is Ricciardo racing in 2024?

• He raced through 2024 with the team now known as RB, with the Singapore Grand Prix as his final race as a full-time driver (Daniel Ricciardo: F1 Career, Wins, and Reserve Role (2024))
• For the current season, his status is reserve driver, not race driver

The practical impact is that every Red Bull race weekend now includes a reminder of what he used to do — and a question about when, or whether, he does it again.

The catch: his value is now three things at once — speed, experience and marketability. Only the first one earns a return to the grid.

The pattern: each race weekend without a drive reinforces the narrative of a talent waiting for the right call.

Did Daniel Ricciardo come from a wealthy family?

No. Ricciardo grew up in Perth, Western Australia, in a family that had no racing empire behind it — his father worked in the gas industry (Daniel Ricciardo: F1 Career Stats, Net Worth & Current Role).

What is Daniel Ricciardo’s net worth?

• Public estimates have placed his net worth around $20 million (Daniel Ricciardo: F1 Career Stats, Net Worth & Current Role)
• The bulk of that comes from his race contracts at Renault and McLaren, which paid top-level salaries during his peak years

The more revealing number is the starting point: Ricciardo did not buy his way into F1. He came up through karting and the junior formulas the slow way, and that background is a large part of why fans trust him.

Is Lando Norris’s dad rich?

• The comparison fans draw is with Lando Norris, whose early career carried the advantage of serious family money
• Ricciardo’s path is the inverse — no family-backed F1 budget, no racing dynasty, just results and personality

Neither path is better or worse; they simply explain different pressures. Norris arrived with a foundation already built. Ricciardo had to build the foundation and then the career on top of it.

Who was a poor F1 driver?

• Ricciardo was never poor — his family was comfortably off — but in F1 terms he was nowhere near the wealthy elite
• His rise is closer to the sport’s older working-class tradition than to the modern junior formula conveyor belt

Why this matters: the “wealthy family” question is really a question about authenticity. Ricciardo’s appeal has always rested on the sense that he earned the seat, the wins, and the lifestyle — nothing was handed to him.

What number does Daniel Ricciardo wear in Formula 1?

Number 3. He has worn it across every team and every helmet design of his F1 career.

Why does Daniel Ricciardo wear number 3?

• The number dates back to his karting days, when he first raced with it as a kid
• When F1 introduced permanent numbers in 2014, he locked in 3 and never changed it
• He chose it for personal significance, not superstition or title numerology

In a sport where drivers switch numbers when they switch teams, Ricciardo’s consistency with 3 became a subtle brand: no matter which livery he drove, the 3 stayed the same.

Does Ricciardo have a specific helmet number?

• Yes — the 3 appears on his helmet designs as a recurring visual signature
• It survived every team change, which is rare for a driver who moved as often as he did

The subtle detail: the number is one of the few constants of his career — more stable than his teams, his seats, and his results.

Who is the most unlucky F1 driver?

Ask that question in F1 fan circles and Ricciardo’s name comes up quickly. The label fits a driver with 8 wins who spent most of his prime chasing the wrong car at the wrong time.

Why is Daniel Ricciardo considered unlucky?

• He left Red Bull after the 2018 season, then watched the team climb back to the front (Daniel Ricciardo: F1 Career, Wins, and Reserve Role (2024))
• He joined Renault for 2019 and McLaren for 2021, and both teams were heading in the wrong direction by the time he arrived
• The 2023 comeback was interrupted by a broken hand at Zandvoort — the kind of timing that turns a career narrative into folklore

The deeper read: Ricciardo kept betting on teams that were about to get worse. Leaving Red Bull before its next title cycle is the move fans point to, but McLaren’s slide was just as predictable in hindsight.

Ricciardo’s McLaren struggles

• The 2021 Italian Grand Prix win with McLaren proved the speed was still there
• The 2022 car did not suit his driving style, and the results dropped off sharply
• McLaren ended the partnership before the planned end of his contract

The irony is that the same driver who beat Norris at Monza in 2021 could not extract pace from the 2022 car that Norris managed comfortably. That mismatch, more than any crash or bad decision, defined his final McLaren season.

Did Ricciardo make bad career moves?

• Leaving Red Bull after 2018 is the decision most often called a mistake
• Renault and McLaren both offered long-term security and team-leader status — and both underdelivered
• Ricciardo himself has been candid about the Red Bull exit, and his own words appear in the quotes below

The trade-off: every move made sense at the moment he made it. The unluckiness was always about timing, and timing is the one thing a driver cannot negotiate.

The catch: a reputation built on timing is hard to escape, even for a driver with 8 wins.

Who is the most hated F1 driver of all time?

Ricciardo does not belong on that list — which is exactly why the question keeps circling back to him in sideways form. He is the rare driver fans of every team seem to agree on.

Who is the least liked F1 driver?

• Fan surveys consistently rate Ricciardo as one of the most liked drivers on the grid
• The names that usually surface — Nelson Piquet and Nikita Mazepin among them — are tied to off-track controversy more than on-track results

The distinction matters: “most hated” in F1 is rarely about driving ability. It is about behavior, politics and history — categories Ricciardo has never touched.

Who is the rudest F1 driver?

• No serious ranking exists, and the label tends to follow drivers with angry rivalries
• Ricciardo’s off-track reputation runs the opposite way — teammates and rivals describe him as one of the friendliest drivers in the paddock

Ricciardo’s popularity vs others

• He is one of the few drivers whose nickname — the Honey Badger — is as well known as his results
• The shoey celebration and the permanent grin made him a crossover figure, recognizable even to people who do not watch F1

The point: popularity is its own currency in F1, and Ricciardo is one of the few drivers who still spends it freely without a front-running car.

Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career timeline

Eight moments, one pattern: every high is followed by a reset.

The through-line: the career keeps resetting every two or three years, and the reset itself is the only part that repeats.

Daniel Ricciardo, in quotes

Three moments that explain the gap between Ricciardo’s results and his reputation.

“It wasn’t the greatest decision of my life.”

— Daniel Ricciardo, reflecting on leaving Red Bull (Formula 1 (career retrospective))

“It has been fantastic to have Daniel back. He is a proven winner, a huge personality, and an asset to the whole team.”

— Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, on Ricciardo’s return

“The shoey started as a joke, and then it became the thing people expected. When you win a Grand Prix, you celebrate your own way.”

— Daniel Ricciardo, on his post-race tradition

The common thread: Ricciardo always understood the difference between being a driver and being a character. His career had both, which is why fans keep hoping for one more lap.

The paradox that keeps Ricciardo relevant

Every era of Ricciardo’s career ends the same way — with the sport and the driver still fond of each other, and no clean reason for the split. He has the wins, the podiums, the personality, and the fan base; what he lacks is a car that matches the reputation.

Red Bull’s decision sets the ending: a return for one more season, or a farewell that fades into the background. Ricciardo’s legacy — 8 wins, 32 podiums, and the most durable popularity in the paddock — depends on which one the team chooses.

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