Daniel Ricciardo raced in his last Grand Prix in Singapore three weeks ago and it seems his F1 career is now over. While the Aussie was very emotional due to his impending exit, he now appears to have calmed down and posted behind-the-scenes pictures from the Singapore weekend. One of these pictures shows him having a wholesome helmet swap with Oscar Piastri.
Ricciardo has seemingly passed the Australian baton in the sport to Piastri. The 23-year-old replaced the Honey Badger at McLaren in 2023. Regardless, there has been mutual respect and camaraderie between the two. Ricciardo also wrote a message for his young Aussie compatriot on the helmet he swapped.
“Oscar, keep flying that flag you good thing! To many more wins! Daniel”, his message read.
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The 35-year-old driver was amidst a whirlpool of rumors and speculations about his F1 future for the past month or so. Heading into the Singapore GP weekend, several reports hinted RB looking to replace Ricciardo with Liam Lawson ahead of the US GP in late October.
And it all unfolded accordingly, as Ricciardo perhaps knew that the Faenza outfit would drop him after Singapore. The key reason for his sacking was his underperformance and inconsistency this season against teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Moreover, Red Bull (RB’s parent team) also had a rumored contractual obligation to provide Lawson with a seat for 2025 and give him at least five races this year. As a result, Ricciardo had to bite the bullet amid this chaos.
Naturally, the Australian’s fans were unhappy with the handling of their beloved driver’s exit, which could be a permanent one with Ricciardo not having a contract for 2025. Currently, only Sauber has a vacant seat for 2025 and they have shortlisted their options with Ricciardo nowhere on that list.
What’s next for Ricciardo?
There were a lot of questions posed to Ricciardo about whether he would like to race in other categories than F1. To this, the Aussie was unsure of whether he could do well in other categories like IndyCar or NASCAR. As for IndyCar, he stated that he is scared of it due to the accident-prone nature of the series on oval tracks like the Brickyard at Indianapolis.
He has also ruled out NASCAR despite it being one of his favorite categories since childhood. After several seasons of struggle in the midfield in F1, Ricciardo has probably lost his confidence and is unsure whether he can adapt to the demands of NASCAR and regain his racing mojo.
Recently, the 35-year-old went to California to go dirt biking with his friends. He posted clips and pictures of himself in dirt biking gear in Santa Barbara. Despite the awful setback of his F1 exit, the Honey Badger seemed happy and was smiling in the company of his friends.
