The future of Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula One career has never looked so uncertain. On Wednesday, he and McLaren confirmed they will part company at the end of 2022, one year before his contract was due to expire.
It’s a remarkable turn of events for one of F1’s most talented and popular drivers. Ricciardo’s stock has taken a big hit over the past 18 months since he arrived at the British team. There was the obvious high of his stunning Italian Grand Prix victory last year — a tantalising glimpse of Ricciardo at his absolute best and McLaren’s only race win since 2012 — but it stands out as the anomaly in an otherwise frustrating spell of falling well below the expectations McLaren and F1 fans had of him.
Things have been made worse by the superb form of teammate Lando Norris, who is currently 57 points ahead of Ricciardo in the championship, but McLaren’s decision to pull the trigger was still a shocking outcome to the whole saga.
It would be a massive disappointment if Formula One lost Ricciardo. At his best, he is one of the best drivers in the sport and arguably the best overtaker in F1 — memorably, he once said his approach to out-braking his opponents was “lick the stamp and send it” — but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that version of Ricciardo, who claimed seven of his eight career wins between 2014 and 2018 at Red Bull. He remains one of the most marketable athletes on the grid right now.
Big questions now linger. Where will he go next? And, if he finds a new seat, can he ever rediscover his old self?
Despite the humbling end to his tenure with McLaren, it’s hard to imagine Ricciardo not racing in F1 next season.
Rumours of Ricciardo thinking about retirement have lingered all year but have not been based on anything the Australian driver has actually said publicly or privately. His desire to stay in F1 is clear — ESPN understands he is reluctant to take a sabbatical from the championship next year because it could quite easily turn into a retirement if the right opportunity does not materialise in 2024.
Notably, his quote in Wednesday’s press release finished with: “I’ve never been more motivated to compete and be a part of a sport that I love so much and look forward to what comes next”.
The circumstances around his early exit from McLaren will have only added fuel to that fire to compete. It is hard to imagine Ricciardo wanting his F1 career to end on the sour note of having a contract torn up one year early. Right now a return to…
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