“Wild and great.” That’s how Daniel Ricciardo described a journey in System One which concluded on Thursday with affirmation of his ouster from RB for the rest of the 2024 season. It was hardly surprising, given speak of the 35-year-old’s future had dominated the build-up to final week’s race and a closing flourish to report the quickest lap in Singapore carried all of the airs of 1 final bow. The Australian, one of many sport’s most ebullient characters, appeared at peace with what was to return as he described the lap as “one final crack at doing a quick one.”
Ricciardo’s wording feels apt. Largely because of his endearing presence in the Netflix sequence Drive to Survive, he departs the game as considered one of its hottest figures. – the tide of tributes flowing from followers and friends speaks to the imprint that he has had on the grid, not simply as a driver but in addition as a character. At a time when F1 has skilled a surge in new curiosity in a social-media-driven age, his beaming smile, entertaining interviews and well-known ‘shoey’ celebration – and his 32 appearances on the rostrum – have turn out to be core reminiscences of a era of latest followers.
There was doubtless an early and astute recognition by Ricciardo of the potential boons that could possibly be gleaned from F1’s foray onto Netflix, however the unabashed Aussie-ness he has portrayed on the world stage has carried explicit weight in his homeland. Being keen to poke enjoyable and never take oneself too severely is an enormous a part of the ‘larrikin’ identification the nation likes to painting to the world and right here was considered one of its best athletes doing so, in considered one of sport’s most opulent and elite environments. That is very true in his hometown of Perth, which counts him as considered one of its all-time sporting exports.
A era of F1 followers will now keep in mind Ricciardo as a personality, one of many grid’s strongest personalities. But, in a vacuum, that may be unfair as it will threaten to overshadow the immense promise and flashes of brilliance he has confirmed throughout his profession. These performances in his early days within the sport recommended Australia’s first champion since Alan Jones was ready to be topped. And funnily sufficient, the nexus level of Ricciardo’s on-track profession carries some stage of synchronicity together with his emergence on Drive to Survive, given his change from Crimson Bull to Renault as one of many present’s first key storylines.
Throughout a breakout 2014 season – his first with Crimson Bull after graduating from Toro Rosso to fill the seat of countryman Mark Webber – it was the Australian who pounced every time an in any other case dominant Mercedes group of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg slipped. Topping the rostrum in Canada, Hungary and Belgium, he received the one three races not claimed by the Mercedes duopoly that season and completed third within the championship, overshadowing his teammate and then-defending four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. And whereas the uncooked expertise of Max Verstappen would turn out to be obvious within the years forward following Vettel’s transfer to Ferrari, it was Ricciardo who was seen because the most definitely of the Crimson Bull drivers to problem – if they may work out their underpowered Renault energy unit.
His apogee arrived at Monaco in 2018, when after qualifying in pole place he managed to carry off a chasing pack for 50 laps regardless of a failing energy unit and solely six of his eight gears working to say the win on the well-known circuit. A superb drive was adopted by an iconic celebration as he swan dived, arms aloft, into the Crimson Bull swimming pool.
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However the subsequent transfer to Renault proved curios and ill-fated – regardless of some notable podiums – as did a subsequent change to McLaren. Although his star continued to rise off the observe, there have been perceptions of a lack of killer intuition as he struggled to adapt his aggressive, late-braking fashion to the McLaren. One closing victory got here at Monza in 2021, maybe a teasing trace at what may need occurred had he by no means left Crimson Bull, however the emergence of Lando Norris served to convey his time with the group to a untimely finish. He returned to AlphaTauri/RB in 2023 – first as a reserve after which changing Nyck de Vries – however a fairytale comeback by no means materialised; Yuki Tsunoda’s rise and the promise of Liam Lawson – his alternative for the remainder of this season – meant the writing was on the wall.
Finally, Crimson Bull’s reluctance to offer readability earlier than Singapore denied Ricciardo the sendoff he deserved. However he ended his profession as a significant a part of F1’s story for a decade; his absence from any telling would go away it incomplete. That affect takes completely different kinds and was delivered in several methods nevertheless it was at all times genuinely Ricciardo. And it was genuinely wild and great.
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