2018 turned out to be a life-altering year for Daniel Ricciardo, as he had planned to jump ship from Red Bull to Renault to build his own legacy in F1. The aftermath of this pivotal decision is well-known — Ricciardo has struggled to adapt to non-Red Bull teams.
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In hindsight, many have questioned Ricciardo’s fateful decision. But at the time, the Australian driver was driven by his need to properly separate himself from the pressure cooker Red Bull lifestyle.
He didn’t just change the team he drove for. The other major change he made was to switch his management. He parted ways with his then-manager Glenn Beavis to join the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which was famous for managing other star athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Dwyane Wade.
Having worked with Beavis and Red Bull throughout his F1 career till then, Ricciardo wanted a change of business brainpower behind the scenes while he dealt with the on-track switch to Renault.
ESPN’s Jake Michaels wrote how the Perth-born driver may have wanted to get away from the Red Bull “bubble”, where drivers are forced to dedicate a ton of their bandwidth to the energy drink maker’s marketing activities off the track. And perhaps he may have heard about the CAA’s style of management and how they balanced Wade’s life on and off the track.
The former Miami Heat player was mainly managed by Henry Thomas at CAA, who developed a fatherly bond with him. In fact, when Thomas passed away in January 2020, Wade said, “I’ve never lost anyone in my family that’s been close to me. This is the first person that I’ve lost, so just dealing with that.”
Dwyane Wade posts an emotional letter after the passing of his agent Hank Thomas pic.twitter.com/CousoivJcf
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 27, 2018
Even after Thomas’ death, CAA’s Pat Riley took over Wade’s management until his retirement in 2019. Now, athletes might forget their managers and dissociate with them after their playing days are passed. But the Chicago-born NBA veteran joined the CAA as a Consultant in early 2020 and has been actively working in the NBA and WNBA.
Clearly, CAA had earned its reputation for putting the interests of their athlete clients first. Ricciardo would’ve envied that until he joined them himself, and moved away from the “365-day marketing job” that his Red Bull stint was. After leaving Red Bull, Ricciardo also got a lucrative contract with Renault, as he was paid a handsome $27 million annually for the two seasons he drove for them.
His off-track brand also improved, and he did not lose on any deals he had during his Red Bull days. However, the only setback of this management change was his dispute with former manager. Beavis had claimed Ricciardo owed him unpaid commissions and threatened to file a £10 million ($13.2 million) claim. Luckily, the two managed to settle the issue without going to court, though neither party has disclosed the details of the settlement.
