F1 News
Why Coulthard believes it is 'risky' for Ricciardo to move to another class
- Ludo van Denderen
Visa Cash App RB confirmed Daniel Ricciardo will no longer race for the team last week. As a result, his career in Formula 1 is over. Apart from a brief farewell message on his Instagram account, the Australian has been quiet ever since. The big question is: What will Ricciardo do next?
Australian Supercars has already said they would love to see Ricciardo in one of their cars. There is also speculation about a (one-off?) entry in IndyCar or NASCAR. But for now, it is just speculation. It could just be that Ricciardo stops racing altogether.
Ricciardo in the media?
According to David Coulthard, that might be wise. Not because the Scottish ex-F1 driver doesn't think Ricciardo is fast anymore, but because competing in another class might hurt his image. "He's certainly leaving the sport in this modern era of Netflix and a much wider social following than the generation before. But I guess the world is his oyster. So there'll be a lot of opportunities there," Coulthard said in his own podcast Formula for Success.
According to the Scot, it's going to be interesting to see if Ricciardo puts his helmet back on in another class. "The risk in that is you, unless you go in and dominate, which the chances of doing that are pretty slim, you just become another driver and you kind of lose the fairy dust of being an ex-Grand Prix driver. He could definitely be an asset from a media point of view, working in media and all those commercial opportunities, but he may have other plans," Coulthard concluded.
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton