{"id":12021,"date":"2025-07-21T03:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/12021\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T03:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:49:08","slug":"this-moment-of-stupidity-ended-daniel-ricciardos-career-claims-montoya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/12021\/","title":{"rendered":"This moment of \u2018stupidity\u2019 ended Daniel Ricciardo\u2019s career, claims Montoya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juan Pablo Montoya has pinpointed the exact \u201cmoment of stupidity\u201d that ended Daniel Ricciardo\u2019s Formula 1 career.<\/p>\n

That race? The 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, where Ricciardo\u2019s surprising crash in practice resulted in an injured wrist that allowed his ultimate replacement, Liam Lawson, to get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo\u2019s career-ending \u201cmoment of stupidity\u201d<\/p>\n

After being passed over for a seat at McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo looked set to spend the F1 2023 season on the sidelines \u2014 until his former Red Bull program extended an olive branch.<\/p>\n

That year, junior team AlphaTauri had taken a chance on rookie Nyck de Vries, trusting that his championships in Formula 2 and Formula E could translate into a successful Formula 1 career. Unfortunately, as the season progressed, de Vries failed to score a single point after the first 10 races of the year.<\/p>\n

AlphaTauri made headlines when it brought in former driver Daniel Ricciardo, clearly illustrating that the team was looking for experience.<\/p>\n

After two points-less races in Hungary and Belgium, though, Ricciardo was sidelined once again. While attempting to avoid a spinning Oscar Piastri in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, Ricciardo hit the wall and injured his wrist, which put him out of the event at Zandvoort and the following four events.<\/p>\n

More on Daniel Ricciardo:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 What happened to Daniel Ricciardo? The compelling theories to explain his sharp F1 decline<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Daniel Ricciardo net worth: How much is F1\u2019s \u2018Honey Badger\u2019 worth?<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on the MontoyAS Podcast,\u00a0former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya pinpointed that fateful 2023 Dutch Grand Prix crash as the beginning of Ricciardo\u2019s downhill slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was precisely for that reason that Lawson started,\u201d the Colombian explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about it: A moment of stupidity of that magnitude defined Ricciardo\u2019s career and opened the door to Lawson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ricciardo didn\u2019t break his hand, Lawson wouldn\u2019t have jumped on the bandwagon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went very well for him, that\u2019s why they gave him the seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawson secured AlphaTauri\u2019s first points of the season for the second car during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. A seventh-place for Ricciardo in Mexico, though, gave the Australian the ultimate leg up in the championship standings.<\/p>\n

Still, when the season came to a close, many hoped that the team would sign Lawson on a full-time basis for 2024. That didn\u2019t happen; Ricciardo lasted through the Singapore Grand Prix before the Kiwi driver stepped in to replace him.<\/p>\n

But would it be fair to characterize Ricciardo\u2019s Dutch crash as \u201ca moment of stupidity?\u201d<\/p>\n

Having seen Piastri spinning, Ricciardo opted to drive into the tyre barrier rather than crash directly into the out-of-control car. In many similar incidents, drivers will remove their hands from the wheel to prevent injuring their wrist as the wheel snaps, but Ricciardo may not have had time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re coming into that corner, it\u2019s blind, so maybe he saw me too late and turned to the wall instead of into me,\u201d Piastri reflected to media at the time. \u201cSo if he did, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ricciardo underwent surgery in Spain shortly after the crash, where several screws and a plate were fitted to his hand, designed to repair a metacarpal bone broken in several places.<\/p>\n

The time away from the track after returning to the F1 space almost certainly worked against Ricciardo when it came to making a full-time return \u2014 but it does seem unfair to brand the crash as a \u201cmoment of stupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Ranked: The top five unfulfilled F1 talents of the modern era<\/a><\/p>\n

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