Daniel Ricciardo: This is how I would feel if F1 2024 is the end

Is Daniel Ricciardo poised to wave goodbye to F1?

It would be a sense of gratitude mixed with sadness for Daniel Ricciardo if his F1 career ends after 2024, but he is “not ready” to wave goodbye.

Just like going into the F1 2024 summer break, Ricciardo will return to the track in a unique situation knowing that his performances carry the possibility of triggering a return to the main Red Bull team next season, or in the other extreme, leave him without the seat he currently holds at junior team VCARB.

Daniel Ricciardo defiant over F1 career end prospect

After losing his McLaren seat, Ricciardo received an F1 career lifeline as the mid-2023 season replacement for Nyck de Vries, but if F1 2024 marks the end, Ricciardo will be “sad”, yet feel “gratitude” for the career in Formula 1 he has had as an eight-time race winner.

But, Ricciardo made it clear that his mind certainly has not accepted that this is his final F1 season.

Asked by Motorsport.com how he would feel if it is game over for his F1 career after 2024, Ricciardo replied: “I still feel so hungry and motivated, so of course I would be sad, because I feel like I’ve still got more to give. I put myself back in a really good place.

“So, it would be sad, but I would definitely take it from a place of gratitude as well, and I think that’s where my perspective can help sometimes.

“Look, I’m grateful that I had the time I had, and I was able to drive a car that won races. I’ve had a more than 10-year career in a sport I know many can only dream of.

“I would probably go to bed with that thought. But inside, I feel like I’m not ready.”

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If Ricciardo is unable to secure an F1 2025 Red Bull return in the place of Sergio Perez, then his seat at VCARB will come under serious threat from Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson, who – as Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has mentioned – has a clause that will free him of his Red Bull contract should they not provide him a seat.

Red Bull reportedly has until the end of September until that clause activates, so Marko has teased a decision in the coming weeks.

“We will announce what happens next with Liam Lawson in September,” Marko wrote in his Speedweek column.

“The fact that he was able to gain more Formula 1 kilometres of experience in Imola [as part of a VCARB filming day] had been planned for some time. Even if the competition would like to use him on loan, he is not available for that.”

Ricciardo has scored 12 points so far in F1 2024 to VCARB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda’s 22.

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