{"id":386996,"date":"2026-01-04T05:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386996\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:09:09","slug":"daniel-ricciardos-classy-gesture-to-axed-f1-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/386996\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo’s classy gesture to axed F1 star"},"content":{"rendered":"

An F1 star has revealed a classy gesture from iconic racer Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> following his axe from Red Bull last year. <\/p>\n

\nRicciardo was replaced by Liam Lawson<\/a> at Red Bull’s sister team back in September 2024, with the Australian then opting to retire from F1 altogether. <\/p>\n

\nIt brought to an end a career for the fan favourite that had spanned since 2011, and had seen him claim eight grands prix victories, seven of which were earned with Red Bull. <\/p>\n

\nNow, Ricciardo is an ambassador for Ford Racing<\/a>, but it seems that he still keeps an eye on F1, particularly his former colleagues. <\/p>\n

\nLawson spent the 2024 season as a reserve driver for both Red Bull and their sister team, and had to be patient for a full-time opportunity on the grid after excelling in 2023 when replacing an injured Ricciardo. <\/p>\n

\nWhen his opportunity came at the expense of Ricciardo again almost exactly a year later, the New Zealander impressed again, and that was enough to see him promoted up into the main Red Bull seat alongside Ricciardo’s former team-mate Max Verstappen<\/a> for 2025. <\/p>\n

\nHowever, Lawson’s Red Bull career did not go to plan, with the Kiwi being axed from the role after just two race weekends<\/a>, and demoted back down into the Racing Bulls seat. <\/p>\n

\nLawson has explained how tough that situation was, but also how Ricciardo helped him to overcome it. <\/p>\n

\n“He\u2019s been somebody that I obviously looked up to when I was very young,” Lawson told media during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend. <\/p>\n

\n“Then, after working alongside him and closely with him in the last couple of years\u2026 I learned to have a huge amount of respect [for him] with how everything went down last year, especially, and how respectful he was towards me, and that never changed. <\/p>\n

\n“And then going into this year, especially earlier in the year with how tough it was, he\u2019s somebody I spoke to quite a bit. <\/p>\n

\n“Every time I picked up the phone to ask for advice, he was always there to talk. He\u2019s somebody that I have a very, very good amount of respect for.” <\/p>\n

Lawson working his way back<\/p>\n

\nFollowing his axe from Red Bull, Lawson spent the rest of 2025 trying to rebuild his confidence alongside Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls. <\/p>\n

\nWhile it was Hadjar who ultimately outshone Lawson and has been given the Red Bull seat for 2026<\/a>, Lawson performed well in the second half of the season, and has done enough to keep his full-time status on the F1 grid. <\/p>\n

\nLawson scored 34 of his 38 points overall in the final 14 races of the season, highlighting his growing confidence in the Racing Bulls machinery. <\/p>\n

\nHe will head into 2026 being partnered by 18-year-old rookie Arvid Lindblad, and Lawson will be seen as the number one, experienced racer in that team, so the pressure will be on the 23-year-old to outperform his teenage team-mate. <\/p>\n

\nFail to do so, and his status as a full-time racer in F1 may well end come the end of next season. <\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: Verstappen team-mate plans unveiled as secret pact emerges<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An F1 star has revealed a classy gesture from iconic racer Daniel Ricciardo following his axe from Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,2476,578,576,577,3631,3027,44,3015,1882,3630,82],"class_list":["post-386996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gpfans","tag-liam-lawson","tag-news","tag-racing-bulls","tag-red-bull","tag-sam-cook","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}