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Daniel Ricciardo‘s illustrious Formula 1 career seemingly came to an end on Thursday when the 35-year-old Australian officially parted ways with the RB team.
Rumors began to circulate in recent weeks that Ricciardo could lose his job amid several difficult performances and a four-week break in the Formula 1 calendar.
On Thursday, RB made that move official and Ricciardo shared an emotional message to fans on Instagram.
“I’ve loved this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and been a journey,” Ricciardo wrote. “To the teams and individuals that have played their part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me haha thank you. It’ll always have its highs and lows but it’s been fun and truth be told I wouldn’t change it. Until the next adventure.”
Ricciardo began his Formula 1 career in 2011 with HRT but rose to stardom when he joined Red Bull Racing in 2014. Ricciardo won three races in 2014 and finished third in the drivers championship, the highest finish of his career.
He won four more races for Red Bull in the coming years before a falling out saw him leave for Renault in 2019. Unfortunately, Ricciardo was never able to replicate that success with Renault or in later years with McLaren.
He’d go on to win one more race in Formula 1, the 2021 Italian Grand Prix for McLaren, but never returned to the heights he reached with Red Bull.
There were talks that Ricciardo might make a triumphant return to Red Bull in 2023 as a replacement for the struggling Sergio Perez. But that move never came together and now it appears Ricciardo has run his final race in the series.
Liam Lawson, a 22-year-old New Zealander, is set to replace Ricciardo at RB. Lawson filled in for an injured Ricciardo in five races a year ago with mixed results.
“It’s great to see young talent from within the Red Bull family make the next step,” RB Team Princip Laurent Mekies said of Lawson. “We’re looking forward to getting our heads down and focusing on the rest of the season together.”