Ricciardo can forget his ultimate dream: what's next for the Australian?
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- Ludo van Denderen
Once upon a time at Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were considered a golden duo, but a reunion has become unlikely. With Sergio Perez's contract extension for two seasons (Red Bull don't deny that it is a 1+1 contract), the Australian's role at the top of Formula 1 seems to be definitively over. What's next for the good-humoured veteran, who made his return to F1 only to eventually move back to the team with which he celebrated his greatest successes?
In the latest season of Drive to Survive on Netflix, Christian Horner made a confession. Neither Max Verstappen nor Sebastian Vettel - the drivers who gave the Austrian team the most success - are his favourite ever driver at Red Bull. Instead, Daniel Ricciardo is. It is no secret that the team boss and the 34-year-old driver are very good friends.
Whether that was also the reason for giving Ricciardo a second chance in Formula 1 - after his adventure at McLaren ended in a nasty way - we will never know. The fact is, though, that Horner gave Ricciardo a chance to polish his somewhat tarnished record at (then) AlphaTauri (currently VCARB). It was also Horner who sidelined Nyck de Vries after just under half a season with the Italian team due to "disappointing results", only to have Ricciardo replace the Dutchman.
Ricciardo has lost his old form
While De Vries was not given the time to get used to Formula 1 as a rookie, Ricciardo has been allowed to muddle along for almost a year at Red Bull Racing's sister team. Instead of judging Ricciardo on results - as thus happened with De Vries - until very recently, the Australian even had high hopes of replacing Sergio Perez from '25 onwards. Even though teammate Yuki Tsunoda outperforms him almost weekly.
"The ultimate dream," was how Ricciardo regularly referred to the possible prospect of returning to Red Bull. However, it will not come to pass: even good friend Horner could not justify transferring Ricciardo to Red Bull Racing, which means that one last chance of a place in a top team in Formula 1 is gone. There is a real chance that Ricciardo will be allowed to stay at VCARB though.
The very idea of having a chance of progressing to Red Bull Racing was the main motivator for Ricciardo in the last year. Can he bring himself to stay motivated, if VCARB and thus mid-race are the maximum achievable? It was right after his McLaren time that Ricciardo made it known he would rather take a sabbatical than the prospect of competing for crumbs in Formula 1. And that is what remains for him now, probably for the rest of his (still short?) F1 career.
This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.