Amid last week’s outpouring of love for Daniel Ricciardo as his Formula 1 exit became official, there was also unease from some about how his final weekend played out.
While Ricciardo was given that fastest lap opportunity as a farewell gift, received a guard of honour on his return to the RB motorhome post-race, and the great and the good said their goodbyes on Sunday night, there were plenty of people suggesting he did not get the full farewell that he deserved.
After all, if the paddock and the rest of the world had known properly that it was going to be Ricciardo’s final race for RB, then there could have been greater celebrations to mark the occasion.
PLUS: Why Ricciardo deserves a proper F1 farewell, even if his time is up
That Ricciardo did not get such treatment is something that has been laid at the door of Red Bull and RB, amid the misbelief that they had kept the Australian in the dark about their intentions.
For that theory to stack up, however, it would have required Ricciardo to have known nothing about the plans to promote Liam Lawson with immediate effect – and that everything that happened in the days after Singapore came out of the blue.
But, according to insiders, the reality of how things evolved between Red Bull/RB and Ricciardo behind the scenes was very different to how it played out in public.
And as with most things in the complicated world of F1, there were a multitude of factors coming together that resulted in a weekend where, for both team and driver, the farewell was perhaps not as they may each have ultimately wished for.
Lawson option
The key driving force behind why Singapore became the crunch weekend is understood to have been an option in Lawson’s contract with Red Bull relating to his F1 future.
Looming deadline over Lawson’s future meant Red Bull could not delay
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Multiple sources have indicated that there was a September deadline for Red Bull to commit Lawson to an F1 seat for 2025, or else he would in effect become a free agent.
The New Zealander’s performance as Ricciardo’s stand-in for five races last year had impressed everyone in the paddock, and it is known that Sauber/Audi had been sniffing around him earlier in the season.
However, with Red Bull facing uncertainty over Sergio Perez’s performance, and aware that Max Verstappen’s commitment to the squad cannot be guaranteed for the long-term, there was a great reluctance to let…
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