Ricciardo now proud of F1 career after exit he once saw as failure

Daniel Ricciardo says he is now proud of his Formula 1 career, though at first he saw his abrupt 2024 departure as failure and humiliation. He left immediately after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix following a frustrating season with Racing Bulls, which replaced him with Liam Lawson.

On F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Ricciardo described judging himself harshly after his exit. He felt he had failed to perform at the level he needed and, in the months that followed, said he appeared to be enjoying himself in public while hiding pain and sadness. As a boy, he had hoped to fight for a world title and win races; after leaving, he felt that future was gone.

His F1 career began with a mid-season HRT debut in 2011 and brought eight Grand Prix victories and 24 further podiums before his 2024 departure. Ricciardo said he now looks back more positively and is proud of what he achieved.

He linked his gratitude for Racing Bulls’ decision to doubts about whether he would ever have walked away himself. Ricciardo recalled telling his team after the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix that he was done; Silverstone in 2015 was another time he wanted to get away. He worried that further contract extensions and encouragement from people around him might have kept him racing, a prospect he called frightening. The team’s decision gave him a chance to find a life outside F1, he said. He still dislikes how his F1 career ended, but would not want to still be racing in F1 now.