Karun Chandhok: Daniel Ricciardo’s bizarre F1 exit at the Singapore GP

The Red Bull driver merry-go-round made its first stop after the Singapore Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo hopping off the horse (or should that be Bull?!), to be replaced by 22-year-old Kiwi driver Liam Lawson. The whole Singapore weekend seemed strange and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. I don’t think too many people felt particularly strongly about Daniel being replaced, including Daniel, but the fact that he went through this awkward charade of maybe staying/maybe not felt unfair.

It has since come out that the decision had been communicated two weeks prior to the Singapore weekend to Lawson and Ricciardo so I can assume that the only reason to not have a proper send off for Daniel was some contractual obligation to the sponsors.

Ricciardo was brought into the team to be a leader after Nyck de Vries’ struggles last season but his broken arm made a mess of that campaign. The expectation this year was that he would take on that mantle and if he had convincingly done so, then with Sergio Pérez struggling, he would have been parachuted into the main team, five years after vacating that seat in a shock move.

As the year unfolded, however, it was Yuki Tsunoda who grabbed the upper hand, scoring nearly twice as many points and outqualifying the Australian 13-8 this year. Tsunoda has never been seen by the Red Bull management as someone who could be a candidate for a seat at the big team and by beating Ricciardo, it effectively ruled out the multiple grand prix winner being promoted again.

This raised the question of what to do next as the junior team in all its guises has primarily been a place to develop young talent before placing them in the main team. With Ricciardo being ruled out as a future option and Tsunoda not really appearing to make a blip on Christian Horner’s radar, it was logical for Liam Lawson to be plonked into the seat for the final races.

The likes of Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto have shown that there’s a lot of good talent who are young and hungry to grab an opportunity in F1 with both hands. Lawson did just that when he was given the call up last year by qualifying in the top 10 on his first time at Singapore – a tough track – and I’m excited to see what he can manage this time around. Liam is a great character – he’s grounded, honest, hard-working and very fast. He had a plethora of issues in F2 which masked his true potential and I rate him very highly.

“In the right circumstances Ricciardo could have been world champion”

As for Ricciardo, his 17-year journey with the Red Bull programme, including the brief hiatus, seems to be ending. I remember having dinner with his father Joe back in 2007 when I was a Red Bull junior in GP2. Daniel had just done the shoot-out test for the next cohort to join the junior team in Formula Renault. Ricciardo Sr asked me, “Helmut wants to sign up Daniel but that puts him fully in control of Daniel’s career. What do you think we should do?” I had just come away from my first Formula 1 test with the Red Bull team and offered my two pennies’ worth of all the upsides of the programme while cautioning that the Doctor was obviously a tough taskmaster.

On reflection, Daniel and Red Bull both greatly benefited from signing that deal at the end of 2007. Between 2014 and ’17, he was absolutely top drawer and if the team had a Mercedes engine, he would have been a title contender in those years. His personality made him a sponsor’s dream and he quickly became the darling of social media and fans around the world.

Max Verstappen’s arrival shook the balance within Red Bull and Daniel was left with two choices: stay with the team, which could mean more success while accepting that he may play second fiddle to a once-in-a-generation talent; or walk away from the fight and try and forge a path elsewhere.

He chose the second option which was great news for Renault (and his bank account) but badly timed as the switch to Honda power made Red Bull more competitive again. Could he have stayed and had a David Coulthard/ Rubens Barrichello-esque career, scoring podiums and wins while in the supporting role? Yes, but he didn’t want that.

Ricciardo was still delivering at an incredibly high level at Renault and racked up podiums for the Enstone team. On paper, the switch to McLaren was actually the right thing to do, both then and in hindsight, but he never got comfortable with the car. It was painful to watch the destruction of a career. Much like Sebastian Vettel’s final year at Ferrari, this implosion of form is one of the great mysteries of modern F1.

Beyond the friendly, smiling, larger-than-life character, how will we remember Ricciardo the racing driver? Someone fast, who was capable of great highs and overtaking moves. In the right circumstances he could have been world champion, but perhaps not quite in that special group of greats as Lewis Hamilton or Verstappen would be. There’s no shame in that. Importantly Daniel was a gentleman who conducted himself with dignity right up to and including that final weekend in Singapore.

A former racing driver in Formula 1, WEC and Formula E, Karun Chandhok is an analyst for Sky Sports F1 
Follow Karun on Twitter @karunchandhok