Entertainer, last of the late brakers; The Unfulfilled Tale of Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 Career

Entertainer, the last of the late brakers and an enthralling talent. They are just some of the superlatives that could be used to describe the promising, but unfortunately unfulfilled Formula One career of Daniel Ricciardo as the Singapore Grand Prix marked curtains for the Aussie.

Perhaps they’re not terms with which the 35-year old has been attributed to of late, following his ill-fated tenure at McLaren and then subsequent career resuscitation at the hands of his former employers Red Bull – though after all the public haranguing and scrutiny, it’s worth highlighting what made Ricciardo the star he was.

As someone who’s largely spent these last years apart of that scrutinous discourse and can openly own it, there is a refreshing element to revisiting Ricciardo’s past and reminiscing in those formative years that also made one embrace the fandom of the Honey Badger.

That’s where the trouble began, that smile – that damned smile

It was the infectious smile and larrakin’s attitude that helped Formula One fall in love with the West-Aussie when he made his debut midway through the 2011 season. Already a promising junior driver on Red Bull’s books, Ricciardo was loaned out to backmarkers Hispania from the British Grand Prix onwards.

The following year there were wholesale changes to Toro Rosso’s lineup, paving way for Ricciardo to join the Red Bull junior team and pairing too with the highly rated Jean-Eric Vergne. It was here where there was first glimpses of the Honey Badger/predator-like approach to racing from the Aussie, seen in his last lap stripping of Frenchman Vergne for ninth and maiden points at his home race in Melbourne.  

While Vergne bettered his teammate across the season, Ricciardo’s entertaining racecraft earned him the plaudits. 2013 then saw the Aussie ahead of the Frenchman in the standings and as well earning a coveted seat at Red Bull Racing following compatriot Mark Webber’s retirement.

Honey Badger’s star is born

Going into the 2014 season was an unknown in many respects. F1 had just transitioned into a new era of power-units, moving from the screaming V8s to the hybridised V6-turbos which were akin to a Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Such a seismic change in the regulations benefitted Mercedes, who with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were the class of the field. While reigning world champions Red Bull, struggled with power and reliability from their Renault motor.  

Struggled too did the reigning four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who was peerless in the last four seasons and ruthlessly consigned former teammate Webber to the role of number-two – much to Canberran’s dismay. The fear of many an Australian F1 fan was that Ricciardo better not end up second fiddle to the German either.

Weren’t we glad to be wrong? Ricciardo broke out immediately at the opening race in Melbourne and put his Red Bull second on the grid to Hamilton in the wet qualifying. The roars of the Albert Park crowd are still vivid to this day but paled in comparison to when on Sunday the cheers came as the Aussie took the checquered flag in second and stood on the podium.

It wasn’t to be though, with a fuel-flow irregularity – an error from the team – saw Ricciardo stripped of the podium on his Red Bull debut. Beaming with positivity regardless of the disqualification, it wasn’t long before that first trophy was grasped by the Aussie in Barcelona.

The first win – Canada – now that sent us all into raptures during the early hours of the morning. Watching the mighty Mercedes marque brought to their haunches with rare reliability issues allowing the lurking Ricciardo to steal victory.

And that was what defined the breakout 2014 season for Ricciardo, earning the title of ‘burglar’ from former racer turned commentator Martin Brundle, because he was always lurking behind the warring Hamilton and Rosberg and managed to burgle three wins en route to third in the standings.

Outclassing and outperforming Vettel as well that year; a catalyst to the German’s departure from Red Bull to Ferrari in a quest to add to tally of four world championships. Ultimately showing how adept Ricciardo was with the volatile and unreliable RB10 in comparison to his champion teammate.

Right place at the wrong time?

What was gleaned from the breakout 2014 campaign was that Ricciardo was a prospect for future world champion. Had Red Bull been as competitive as they were in the previous era of regulation – there was no doubt that he would have been.

Something that amongst the emotions of the post-race in Singapore present day, that the 35-year old laments – in that he never achieved his dream of becoming an F1 world champion.

Red Bull in 2015 spiraled further into uncompetitiveness, losing the moniker of second-best to Mercedes over to Ferrari – who under new management and with Vettel’s arrival were re-energised.

The public critique of Renault’s power-unit efforts grew particularly from Red Bull’s hierarchy, with even threats from the seldom-speaking late founder of the energy drinks giant in Dietrich Mateschitz that they’d abandon the sport.

Though the shaming of the French manufacturer, with whom they’d shared the success of four-straight titles between 2010-2013 did little to mask the fact that even on the chassis side, Red Bull were struggling in a time when their legendary designer Adrian Newey was wanting to step away to focus on other projects.

Slumping to eighth in the standings, despite two podiums – it was the rare ink blot on the copybook during Ricciardo’s early Red Bull years. Even being beaten in the championship by his new teammate Daniil Kvyat, whose own career with the outfit wasn’t destined much longer.

Even when they returned to winning ways in 2016 and Ricciardo powered to a career best finish of third again in the championship, the missing piece of the puzzle was still car performance and across a season the Red Bull was no match for Mercedes.

Perplexing though and with the benefit of hindsight, comes the greatest what if scenario in modern F1 – of if Ricciardo hadn’t left Red Bull for Renault, prior to Honda’s arrival and subsequent return to championship contention?

The Max Verstappen factor

“Is he making the right career choice? My assumption is that he’s running from a fight,” were the discerning words of Red Bull team boss Christian Horner in wake of Ricciardo’s shock announcement following his emphatic redemption win in Monaco, that he’d be leaving to join Renault’s works outfit.

The fight that he was supposedly running from? Was with this young upstart from the Netherlands called Max Verstappen – who after just a year at Toro Rosso and at 18-years old was promoted to Red Bull Racing to replace Kvyat. And then proceeded to win on his Red Bull debut at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen was the kind of talent that was earmarked for the sort of success that Red Bull enjoyed with Vettel and it became more apparent that the Dutchman was being nurtured for that more than Ricciardo, despite his toiling in subpar machinery and becoming a household name.

“I struggled to let that go, the whole race and the aftermath. That played a part in my decision. I never really felt the same after that. As soon as I crashed into him, part of me felt ‘you guys [Red Bull] deserve this, that was a shitshow’,” was what the Aussie said told The Age in 2019, reflecting upon the flashpoint between he and Verstappen at the 2018 Azerbaijan GP.

While in hindsight, it is fair to conclude that Ricciardo should have stayed at Red Bull despite the fears that he was destined for a Webber-esqe future as a number-two driver but still have the benefit of title winning machinery as Red Bull have had since 2021 – the bold decision to pursue his own path is still one deserving of credit.

Even if it was ultimately the catalyst to the downfall of his career, when despite promising signs at Renault through 2019 and 2020 – he ultimately saw more long-term potential with McLaren, even if that was sadly never realised beyond the solitary Monza victory in 2021.

Another case of right place at the wrong time at McLaren, as deficiencies in his driving style were exposed next to the rising talent in Lando Norris at the time. Though in present day, Norris and the Aussie’s compatriot Oscar Piastri have propelled a class-leading McLaren into the lead of the constructor’s championship.  

The less said about the eventual downfall the better, given the purpose of this piece is to remember Ricciardo’s career for the immense joy it brought followers of the sport to see that ear-to-ear grin, his quips on the radio about tripping major nut-sack and of course the shoeys.

257 starts, yielding 8 stunning wins, 32 podiums and 3 pole positions – might not fully paint the picture of the Honey Badger. Though I guarantee if you go and watch all eight of his victories, you’ll walk away as if just exiting the cinema in awe of a bombastic blockbuster film.