![\"Ricciardo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/XPB_1306731_HiRes.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Ricciardo says he is grateful for Red Bull and Racing Bulls for letting him go in 2024. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Ricciardo says he is grateful for Red Bull and Racing Bulls for letting him go in 2024. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
The eight-time grand prix winner lost his seat to Liam Lawson late in the 2024 season, bringing an end to a career that spanned 257 starts across 14 seasons.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Ford CEO Jim Farley\u2019s podcast, Ricciardo reflected candidly on the toll of his final years in F1 and the circumstances that led to his exit.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I got let go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the reality at the time. I think once that happened, I\u2019d been let go twice in the last two years, and it had also taken a lot out of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d put a lot of my soul into it. I was pretty exhausted by it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me. I think it would have been hard to be like, \u2018I\u2019m done.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricciardo\u2019s departure marked the end of a turbulent final chapter to his F1 career that began when McLaren released him at the end of 2022 to make way for Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n
A mid-2023 return with Red Bull\u2019s junior outfit offered a lifeline, but a broken hand and inconsistent form ultimately left him vulnerable.<\/p>\n
By the time he was replaced following the Singapore Grand Prix in 2024, Ricciardo acknowledged he had already sensed the end was near.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I knew I was probably done because I knew it was harder for me to perform at the level I could,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor whatever reason, I lost a little bit of something, and it\u2019s okay to admit it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old added that despite many on the outside believing he was still capable of competing at the top level, he understood the importance of accepting where he was at in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s people that love you and will still tell you that you\u2019re great and you can do it, but as much as you love them as well, you need to just close the door and make that decision on your own and be really honest with yourself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I would have got to the end of last year, I think I would have still had a lot of these thoughts and had had the conversation with myself, because I knew it was becoming harder for me, and I had to dig really deep to pull out a result that I was proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always want to believe everyone\u2019s looking out for you, and they probably still are, but they don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be you and in your situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, my retirement year, I gave myself a lot of time to just reflect on my career and to be at peace with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since stepping away from F1, Ricciardo has shifted his focus toward life outside the cockpit, including time in Australia and work with Ford as a global ambassador, while also developing his Enchant\u00e9 fashion brand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo says he is grateful for Red Bull and Racing Bulls for letting him go in 2024.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-579861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579861","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=579861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}