![](\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=Daniel+Ricciardo%2C+Belgian+GP+2024&photo_copyright=%C2%A9+Red+Bull&photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fraces%2Fpbel24%2Fsun%2Fred%2Fricciardo12-lg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDaniel Ricciardo, Belgian GP 2024
\u00a9 Red Bull<\/p>\n
In an interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley, the Australian opened up about the end of his F1 career following his final stints with McLaren and a brief comeback attempt.<\/p>\n
2022 I struggled a lot, my second year at McLaren. They let me go, Ricciardo said.<\/p>\n
So then 2023 I started without a seat and that was like – is this maybe it? Like do I just call it now? But I knew there was still some burning desire in me.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo, now 36, returned with Red Bull-owned Alpha Tauri mid-season, but his comeback was quickly derailed.<\/p>\n
“I got back into the seat halfway through the season. Second race, third race in, I broke my hand and it was such a nothing accident.<\/p>\n
“I missed however many races, I think I was out for 10 weeks or something. And I was like, okay, is this now a bit of a sign? Like should I just quit while I’m ahead?<\/p>\n
And I was like, no, there’s still unfinished business.<\/p>\n
However, his second stint also ended in disappointment.<\/p>\n
I pushed through it and look, I lasted another year in F1 and then got – yeah, look, ultimately got let go. That was the reality at the time.<\/p>\n
Looking back, Ricciardo admits the repeated setbacks took a heavy toll.<\/p>\n
“I’d been let go twice in the last two years. And it had also taken a lot out of me. I’d put a lot of my soul into it and I did feel pretty exhausted by it.<\/p>\n
In reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me.<\/p>\n
The eight-time grand prix winner says he had already begun to recognise his level was slipping.<\/p>\n
“I think I knew I was probably done because I knew that it was harder for me to perform at the level I could.<\/p>\n
Alonso, these guys, are still in their 40s in F1, competing very highly. For whatever reason, I lost a little bit of something and it’s okay to admit it. It’s fine.<\/p>\n
(GMM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APRIL 8, 2026 Daniel Ricciardo says being dropped from Formula 1 ultimately came as a relief after two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[2226,3769,3798,3825,3812,3756,3757,3806,3846,1205,3833,3778,3782,49,48,581,95,3788,3820,3811,578,3753,3818,3763,3018,930,3754,576,580,577,3781,3790,3808,3758,3759,3751,3822,3801,3774,3823,3840,3827,3847,3800,3844,3750,3752,3772,2454,3789,3775,3765,3784,3768,3814,3780,3761,3794,3850,3803,3792,932,3795,3777,3843,3845,3824,3773,590,3760,3834,3837,3810,3836,3797,2338,3842,2475,3815,3785,3019,3764,3802,3786,3805,3828,582,3755,1882,3829,3771,3793,3807,3783,3841,3799,3014,3762,3796,3766,3779,3835,3838,3849,3839,82,3831,3832,3816,3776,3830,926,3787,3848,3819,3826,3809,3767,3770,3791,1196,3817,3813,3821,3804],"class_list":{"0":"post-590237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-adrian-sutil","10":"tag-albers","11":"tag-alesi","12":"tag-ammermuller","13":"tag-autoracing","14":"tag-autos","15":"tag-badoer","16":"tag-bahrain","17":"tag-barcelona","18":"tag-benetton","19":"tag-bruno-senna","20":"tag-button","21":"tag-ca","22":"tag-canada","23":"tag-cars","24":"tag-china","25":"tag-david-coulthard","26":"tag-davidson","27":"tag-doornbos","28":"tag-f1","29":"tag-f1-racing","30":"tag-fauzy","31":"tag-felipe-massa","32":"tag-fernando-alonso","33":"tag-ferrari","34":"tag-fia","35":"tag-formula-1","36":"tag-formula-one","37":"tag-formula1","38":"tag-giancarlo-fisichella","39":"tag-gilles-villeneuve","40":"tag-glock","41":"tag-grand-prix","42":"tag-grandprix","43":"tag-grandprix-com","44":"tag-hakkinen","45":"tag-hamilton","46":"tag-heikki-kovalainen","47":"tag-hill","48":"tag-hockenheim","49":"tag-honda","50":"tag-hungary","51":"tag-ide","52":"tag-indianapolis","53":"tag-inside-f1","54":"tag-insidef1-com","55":"tag-jaime-alguesuari","56":"tag-japan","57":"tag-jaques-villeneuve","58":"tag-jarno-trulli","59":"tag-jenson-button","60":"tag-juan-pablo-montoya","61":"tag-kamui-kobayashi","62":"tag-karthikeyan","63":"tag-karun-chandhok","64":"tag-kimi-raikkonen","65":"tag-klien","66":"tag-korea","67":"tag-kovalainen","68":"tag-kubica","69":"tag-lewis-hamilton","70":"tag-liuzzi","71":"tag-lucas-di-grassi","72":"tag-magny-cours","73":"tag-malaysia","74":"tag-mansell","75":"tag-mark-webber","76":"tag-mclaren","77":"tag-michael-schumacher","78":"tag-minardi","79":"tag-monaco","80":"tag-montagny","81":"tag-monte-carlo","82":"tag-monteiro","83":"tag-montreal","84":"tag-monza","85":"tag-motorsport","86":"tag-nakajima","87":"tag-nick-heidfeld","88":"tag-nico-hulkenberg","89":"tag-nico-rosberg","90":"tag-paffett","91":"tag-pedro-de-la-rosa","92":"tag-piquet","93":"tag-prost","94":"tag-racing","95":"tag-racingcars","96":"tag-red-bull","97":"tag-renault","98":"tag-robert-kubica","99":"tag-rosberg","100":"tag-rossiter","101":"tag-rubens-barrichello","102":"tag-san-marino","103":"tag-sato","104":"tag-sauber","105":"tag-schumacher","106":"tag-scott-speed","107":"tag-sebastian-vettel","108":"tag-sebastien-buemi","109":"tag-senna","110":"tag-silverstone","111":"tag-singapore","112":"tag-spa","113":"tag-sports","114":"tag-spyker","115":"tag-super-aguri","116":"tag-sutil","117":"tag-timo-glock","118":"tag-toro-rosso","119":"tag-toyota","120":"tag-trulli","121":"tag-turkey","122":"tag-valles","123":"tag-verstappen","124":"tag-vettel","125":"tag-vitaly-petrov","126":"tag-vitantonio-liuzzi","127":"tag-webber","128":"tag-williams","129":"tag-winkelhock","130":"tag-wurz","131":"tag-yamamoto","132":"tag-zonta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590237","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=590237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}