1. Farewell to the Honey Badger?
After days of waiting, the rumors were finally confirmed in the Formula 1 world: Daniel Ricciardo is once again out of the series, departing the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team.
It wasn’t a surprise to many following the series, as Ricciardo had spent last weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix all but saying that he was out of the seat.
The reality of the situation is that Ricciardo came to the team to beat Yuki Tsunoda. He was largely inconsistent in this endeavor, showing pace depending on the track, but Tsunoda was able to come out on top.
You can say that how RB made the swap was bad, because Ricciardo left without a true blue goodbye. But the swap itself was not the problem.
Sports are not entertainment at their core. Happy endings don’t always happen. The reality of the situation is that Ricciardo was on his second chance at F1, and it ended with him giving his seat up to a driver who could eventually win races for the main team. The fact that he was and is a big star with a number of fans could only take him so far.
If anybody is getting screwed or ignored at RB, it’s Tsunoda. Liam Lawson will be his fourth teammate and potentially the third he will beat. If he wasn’t there primarily because of Honda, it’s clear he’d be gone because it doesn’t have the faith to move him up to the main team and pit him head-to-head with Max Verstappen.
2. So, what’s next for Ricciardo?
Thanks to the sponsors that would jump to get involved with him, Ricciardo has a number of options for the future of his racing career — most of which involve a roof and fenders.
The one book that has been pretty definitively closed is F1. Going to the Red Bull junior team and losing is usually the end of your career.
Maybe Ricciardo signs with another team as the reserve driver once more, but he’s not going to be able to parlay that into a seat on the grid again. That’s a card that can only be played once, and only after getting beaten by a generational talent like Lando Norris.
He was open as late as last weekend at his disinterest in racing in the NTT IndyCar Series due to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …