by VALERIO BARRETTA
Ricciardo, another goodbye
Formula 1 is missed by its fans, and when it returns to the track it will do so without Daniel Ricciardorejected by RB due to lower-than-expected performances. The Australian, beaten on many occasions by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, will give way to Liam Lawson starting from the Austin Grand Prix, and he gave a (not at all obvious) good luck to the class of 2002.
Colleague Tom Clarkson revealed the backstory in the latest episode of F1 Nation: “Daniel knew that Singapore was his last race. Yet after the GP he went to Lawson and said: ‘Good luck. You only have one chance in Formula 1, make the most of it‘. When you hear things like that it almost makes you cry“.
Ricciardo, in discussion all year (even Helmut Marko wanted to exclude him even before the Spanish GP in mid-June), did not hide his sadness in Singapore. In all the interviews, theHoney Badger he seemed down in the dumps and resigned to leaving. A farewell that perhaps he too had unconsciously sought: his goal was in fact to return to Red Bull, and the opportunity had even arrived in the summer, when the Milton Keynes team was one step away from firing Sergio Perez.
The permanence of Checo in Red Bull it was instead the definitive defeat for Ricciardo, who at that point found himself faced with the failure of his project started in mid-2023. The #3 has always rejected smaller teams, however making an exception for RB precisely to the prospect of driving Red Bull in 2024 or 2025 at the latest.
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