{"id":137091,"date":"2025-09-12T06:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/137091\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T06:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:53:09","slug":"daniel-ricciardo-paddock-return-ford-ambassador-laurent-mekies-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/137091\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo paddock return, Ford ambassador, Laurent Mekies comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Ricciardo<\/a>‘s latest career move has the Formula 1<\/a> world buzzing.<\/p>\n

After announcing the next step in his career, many are speculating about whether Ricciardo could be set to return to the F1 paddock in 2026.<\/p>\n

This comes as Red Bull<\/a> team principal Laurent Mekies hinted that Ricciardo could soon be making appearances on the F1 circuit.<\/p>\n

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\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo takes a photo with fans as he arrives at the paddock ahead of the 2024 British Grand Prix.\u00a0Peter Fox\/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ricciardo’s seesawing career in F1 came to an end at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix when he was replaced for the remainder of the season at RB (now known as Racing Bulls) in favour of New Zealand driver Liam Lawson.<\/p>\n

His axing closed the curtains on a 14-year career in the sport, which included eight grand prix victories and 32 podiums from his 257 race starts.<\/p>\n

Following his split with the Red Bull Racing program, Ricciardo has not raced anything since<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Perth product confirmed he is now an ambassador in a new partnership with Ford Racing<\/a>, ending speculation around a return to the cockpit.<\/p>\n

Red Bull Powertrains, in collaboration with Ford, is driving the team’s project of developing their own hybrid power unit for the new 2026 season’s regulations.<\/p>\n

The new engine will supply both the Red Bull and Racing Bulls teams.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix weekend. \u00a0Mark Thompson via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ricciardo’s new role with Ford Racing will see him become a key link between his old team and its new engine partner, with Mekies suggesting he may make the occasional appearance in the F1 paddock next year.<\/p>\n

Mekies believes Ricciardo’s presence trackside would be a welcome sight for everyone.<\/p>\n

“It’s a family feeling to see Daniel getting back with Ford Racing as part of this adventure, it’s a great feeling,” he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s one of the many examples in which we see how many connection points we have between our two companies, between the two projects.<\/p>\n

“So it’s very exciting. I’m sure everybody will love to see Daniel back in the paddock, and we are going to perhaps have that sometimes thanks to Ford Racing.”<\/p>\n

In explaining Ricciardo’s ambassadorship, Ford CEO Jim Farley said he sees Ricciardo as a crucial part of the company’s plan to dominate the global off-road market.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo announces that he is now an ambassador of Ford Racing.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

He trusts that Ricciardo’s unique personality and real passion for off-roading are what make him the perfect fit.<\/p>\n

“We want to build a global juggernaut in off-road enthusiast products,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Daniel is a unique person, as we all know, but he also brings a real passion for off-road to a lot of mainstream customers who may not think about off-road.<\/p>\n

“I talk to all the [F1] drivers today, all your drivers, and they all were like, ‘Can I get a Raptor R?’.<\/p>\n

“There’s something behind that. It’s kind of [an] exotic fruit.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo‘s latest career move has the Formula 1 world buzzing. After announcing the next step in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-137091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}