Daniel Ricciardo suggests he's "retired" from F1 in friend's Instagram post
Daniel Ricciardo's Formula 1 career looks to be over after Red Bull replaced him at sister team VCARB with reserve driver Liam Lawson for the final six rounds of the 2024 season
by Daniel Moxon · The MirrorDaniel Ricciardo has been spotted wearing a baseball cap which says: "I'm retired," following his exit from the Formula 1 grid.
For the second time since 2022, Ricciardo finds himself without a drive despite being under contract. He was axed by McLaren that season, a year earlier than planned, while his second chance back in the Red Bull fold has not gone the way he wanted either.
He had hoped to do well enough to earn a return to his old Red Bull Racing seat. But, in the end, he did not do enough to even keep the one he had at sister squad VCARB and now Liam Lawson will participate in the final six rounds of the current F1 season.
Having only found his way back onto the grid the first time because of his Red Bull connections, the axe leaves Ricciardo in a very difficult position. Only one seat remains available for 2025, at Sauber, and he is not believed to feature on Audi's shortlist for that vacancy.
Aged 35, his F1 racing career is most likely over as a result of his VCARB exit. Ricciardo has spent the last few weeks since the announcement out of the public eye, though several photographs have cropped up on social media showing him enjoying time with some friends.
One of them is retired former motocross racer Adam Cianciarulo, who posted an image on Instagram of himself spending some time with Ricciardo. In it, the F1 fans' favourite is wearing a cap with a message which reads: "I'm retired, having a good time is my job."
It comes after a photo dump from Ricciardo himself, in his first social media post since the next broke of his departure from the F1 grid. He posted several photos of himself with mechanics and other close allies within the VCARB garage, along with images of a helmet swap with fellow Australian Oscar Piastri and of Lando Norris laughing as they shared a car journey.
As rumours swirled about his future at the Belgian Grand Prix, at the end of July, Ricciardo told Mirror Sport in an exclusive interview that he had not even entertained the idea of courting other teams on the F1 grid, in case his second stint with Red Bull came to an end.
He said: "I think when I came back into the sport and into the Red Bull family, for me the mentality the whole time was, 'This is it'. This is kind of my last chance or my second opportunity. I feel like if this doesn't work, maybe nowhere else will. I've kind of just gone for that all-in approach, also because I want it to work here. This does feel like home for me and the place where I belong the most.
"It's like tunnel vision, trying to make this work. Yes, it might not and maybe I won't have a seat, but I haven't really allowed myself to think that. Maybe that's risky, but I'm not really interested in having chats with other teams because I feel like that will derail me from where I'm trying to go. It's like, 'Red Bull or bust'. If I don't get promoted, then I want to still be here [at VCARB]."
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