Daniel Ricciardo opened up on his Formula 1 retirement on the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast, with the initial feeling of ‘failing’.
Ricciardo joined the F1 grid in 2011, and until his retirement in 2024, he became one of the sport’s most beloved personalities. From his nickname, the Honey Badger, to the Drive to Survive boom, the Australian became one of F1’s most well-known names.
However, on the track, his career had been a rollercoaster. Ricciardo took eight victories and 24 further podiums in his career, with his most successful stretch coming at Red Bull. There, he took his iconic Monaco Victory and became the first driver to fall into the Max Verstappen teammate trap.
After leaving Red Bull in hopes of reclaiming the top driver spot and the championship he’d been chasing, he joined McLaren. Ricciardo struggled in papaya, never finding his stride, and claimed a single win for the team at Monza.
He finally departed the team as they signed Oscar Piastri. He returned briefly to Racing Bulls but ultimately retired after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
The Australian spoke about the expectation he put on himself in the most recent episode of F1 Beyond the Grid: “You start racing at such a young age, and over the years you build a ruthlessness, but that also is inward as well. You know, you can be very harsh on yourself and expect a lot from yourself.”
For Ricciardo, leaving the sport came with the personal disappointment of feeling that he’d failed.
“I think that my view of it was [that I was] failing, not performing to the level I needed to at the time or not being able to finish out the season or whatever. It’s then a sense of humiliation, like I failed and I didn’t do what I once could.” He said. “Trying to deal with those next few months, I understood it as me just hiding from the humiliation.
“People saw me out in public. I was having a good time and having a drink or whatever, and I was just really hiding from what I really felt deep inside, which was a lot of pain and sadness. You know, I was once this kid who was hoping at least to fight for a world title and obviously win races or whatever, but now it’s like, oh, it’s gone.”
After spending over a decade in F1 and his entire life trying to get there, Ricciardo said leaving the sport forced him to find a life outside F1 without facing the fear of taking that step.
“Everyone’s path is going to be different. I think actually the fear I had, in hindsight and learning how content I am not having that anymore, is that what if they kept just extending contracts for me? Would I keep doing it? Was I ever going to turn the tap off?
“I know I wanted to at times. I can tell you right now, in Monaco 2022, after the race, I’m sitting in my apartment talking to my team, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m done’.
“And I’ve had these conversations more than once over the years – Silverstone 2015 was another time. Sure, you have lows and whatever, but there are moments where I’ve wanted to just get away from it. But the reality is, would I have?
“I also think you have people around you that tell you a great tale: you can still do it, and you end up believing a lot of these voices. And I know they don’t mean harm, but you don’t really get much chance to have your own thoughts.
“I think that would have probably just continued, and maybe I’d still be racing, and that’s also a scary thought. I still don’t like how it ended, but there’s also a part of me which is grateful that they pulled the trigger because I wouldn’t want to be doing it now.”
Daniel Ricciardo reflects on highs of his career
His feeling of failure has turned to pride, as time away from the sport has allowed him to reflect on the highs of his career and reminisce.
“In the aftermath of everything, I use the word failure and humiliation in these things, and I appreciate a lot of the stuff I’ve said probably feels very negative or heavy,” he summarised. “But now that I’m out of that, I think being able to understand more [about] life and a lot of things around that, I look back now with much more of a smile than I did a couple of years ago.
“I am definitely proud. I think sometimes you also never really want to reflect that much, especially when you’re racing, because you nearly spook yourself. If I’m like, ‘Oh wow, I did that’, you’re just like, no, can’t think about that. I’ve just got to stay on it because it was all just weird for me.”
He admitted that when he looks back at moments like Monza and Monaco, he’s in disbelief at how he got there.
“Maybe every F1 driver feels this, I don’t know, but there’s so few of us. It’s not imposter syndrome because I believe I was definitely good enough to be there and all that, but it’s like, how did this happen? You know, how am I one of the 20?
“I’ve won races. It can be overwhelming to reflect. But now that I’m in, let’s say, a good, even-keeled place, I’m extremely proud, shocked in many ways that it all happened.”
READ MORE: Cadillac confirm Sergio Perez contract extension until 2029
Discussion about this post