Daniel Ricciardo signed with the Red Bull academy after an impressive test ahead of the 2008 F1 season. The Aussie soon moved up the categories and was signed by HRT in 2011. He then moved to Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso (now RB) in 2012. Two years later, Red Bull promoted him to the main team and he had four-time champion Sebastian Vettel as his teammate.
Considering where the two drivers were in their careers, many expected Vettel to beat Ricciardo as he had just won his fourth title a year ago. However, much to most people’s surprise, Ricciardo outperformed Vettel.
Ricciardo finished P2 at the Australian GP before being disqualified for fuel irregularities. He then finished the Bahrain GP in fourth despite starting in 13th.
Beat reigning champion Sebastian Vettel in his own team.
Beat generational talent Max Verstappen.
Beat Nico Hulkenberg.
Destroyed Esteban Ocon.
8 brilliant wins in an era of domination.
One of the best never to win a title and a great character. Daniel Ricciardo pic.twitter.com/dLdZ0zNfLF
— TFC (@thef1content) September 24, 2024
The Aussie stood on the podium in Spain, Monaco, the US, the UK, and in Singapore. With Mercedes facing issues with their MGU-K system at the Canadian GP, Ricciardo grabbed the opportunity to take his first win in F1.
The honey badger then made some great late-braking overtakes at the Hungarian GP to win the second race of the season. He then took his final win of the season at Spa Francorchamps.
Ricciardo finished the 2014 season in P3 in the championship whereas Vettel ended up in P5. What was even more surprising was that the Aussie scored 71 more points than his four-time world champion teammate. Vettel didn’t have a single win in 2014 and only registered four podiums.
The downfall of Ricciardo’s F1 career
Ricciardo’s F1 career went south when he decided to leave Red Bull for Renault at the end of 2018. He decided to leave after Red Bull signed Max Verstappen and reportedly began favoring the young Dutchman, who they saw as world championship material.
Ricciardo’s career choices since then were unlucky, to say the least. Renault never lived up to the potential of being a title contender despite being a works team. He then moved to McLaren for the 2021 season and joined Lando Norris, who convincingly beat him during their two seasons as teammates.
With Ricciardo massively underperforming when compared to Norris, he left the team after the 2022 season. He then re-joined the Red Bull family as their third driver in 2023.
However, since Nyck de Vries was failing to live up to expectations at AlphaTauri (now RB), the team decided to replace the Dutchman with Ricciardo. However, Ricciardo too has failed to deliver and has been replaced by Liam Lawson after just one season.
