Mark Hughes: The rise and fall of Daniel Ricciardo

Between the previous issue of the magazine and this one, it was confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career had been brought to an end and that for the balance of the season he would be replaced at VCARB by Liam Lawson. It marked the end of eight-time grand prix winner Ricciardo’s attempt to rehabilitate himself and return to the senior Red Bull team.

He hasn’t been the same driver since he left Renault for McLaren in 2021. His difficulties at McLaren alongside Lando Norris dealt his career a second blow which compounded the self-inflicted one of him leaving Red Bull at the end of 2018. Yet since he left there, Red Bull has not found an adequate replacement. Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Pérez: none of them have come close to the level Ricciardo used to routinely deliver, performances good enough to keep Max Verstappen on his toes.

Which was why Christian Horner was desperate for the old Daniel to return in the VCARB car so that he could be his own replacement at the senior team, seven years after. Ricciardo had been perfect in that role. Without a returned-to-form Ricciardo, how else was Horner going to attract an absolute front-rank driver when Max Verstappen is the incumbent? Certainly, it was something that Lando Norris didn’t feel would have been a good career move and he turned the team down twice. Ricciardo was the only race-winning calibre driver who seemed able to exist in the same space as Verstappen without it damaging his own performance and creating tensions.

But maybe it was taking its toll inside. Verstappen had arrived and created a sensation in what had been Daniel’s team once quadruple champion Sebastian Vettel had departed. Perhaps the way Vettel had left suddenly and gone on to further success at a new team played into Ricciardo’s decision to depart when Verstappen had done to him what he’d done to Vettel. The end of ’18 was the first time Ricciardo was contractually free of Red Bull and able to move if he wished.

He’d been a little disappointed that Ferrari didn’t come for him. But Ferrari already had plans for Charles Leclerc, fresh off his rookie season with Sauber, and Vettel was under contract. So if Ricciardo was to leave the paddling pool, his best option was Renault. The money was good – though Red Bull had matched that offer – but at least as importantly, it represented a stepping out, an independence he felt was overdue. He was taking charge of his destiny. That outlook had only been reinforced by the way the team had reacted to the crash between him and Verstappen at Baku in his final year there. Already in his late twenties, he felt belittled being treated as an errant schoolboy, he and Verstappen made to apologise to the workforce – for something he felt wasn’t even his fault. It was Verstappen, after all, who’d made the second move in the braking zone which made the collision inevitable. “You got the feeling that [the punishment] was water off a duck’s back to Max,” said Christian Horner, “but for Daniel it did seem to affect him.”

“In these last few years Daniel tried but the killer instinct was gone”

But Horner barely recognised the mentally bruised driver that returned to the fold after being released by McLaren at the end of ’22. The bounce had gone and so had the speed. In the simulator he was initially adrift even of Pérez, let alone Verstappen. But over the weeks and months he applied himself and did improve significantly. To the point that Horner – still yearning to have that rare high-performing but low-maintenance driver who’d been such a perfect fit before – felt he was ready for a run in the real car. In that test at Silverstone a week after the British Grand Prix, he set a time only slightly slower than Verstappen’s qualifying time. It would have put him on the front row of the grid for the race. Different day, maybe the track was quicker, etc. But it was by all accounts a very impressive test. It looked like the old Daniel was back. A bit of time in the junior team to benchmark him – then slot him onto the Pérez seat. That was Horner’s loose plan and it would have been a great story of redemption. But Daniel could no longer conjure the good stuff for long enough. For reasons no one quite understands.

“I’ve done my best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, otherwise he would have been out of the car after Barcelona,” said Horner. “Even around Barcelona, Helmut [Marko] wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there.”

“The decision to leave Red Bull was the turning point,” Marko said. “I don’t know what happened, because if we knew, we would have helped him. But the speed and, above all, this late braking… in these last few years he tried but it was no longer there. The killer instinct was gone.”

It’s a point that former Haas boss Guenther Steiner – who had discussions with Ricciardo after his McLaren departure was announced – echoed when talking to the website PlanetF1. “I spoke with him but I was not sure that he was ready to go back racing. I couldn’t see the spark. I didn’t know if it would be the right thing and we couldn’t afford him at the time anyway.”

He brought so much to F1 through the sheer joy of his personality. That only works if you’re also delivering performance. He was given a longer opportunity to turn things around than would have been afforded to anyone else. As Lewis Hamilton said in tribute, “You leave a legacy of always being yourself.”

Since he began covering grand prix racing in 2000, Mark Hughes has forged a reputation as the finest Formula 1 analyst of his generation
Follow Mark on Twitter @SportmphMark