Daniel Ricciardo has flipped the narrative of his F1 sacking on its head with a series of honest admissions about how his career ended in brutal fashion.
The Aussie driver was axed by Red Bull’s sister team at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2024 with six races remaining in the season.
There were sad scenes at the Marina Bay Street Circuit as a deflated Ricciardo went through the paces of his post race media duties like a dead man walking.
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Ricciardo and everyone in the Racing Bulls team knew perfectly well after the race that the Perth product had been sacked on the spot.
But, with no official confirmation coming from the team, Ricciardo walked away without any fanfare or show of respect, having finished the race 18th overall.
Instead of doing doughnuts on the track, Ricciardo was on the verge of tears as he savoured his final moments in an F1 car, noticeably spending an extended period just sitting in his car for the final time before hopping out.
It was only four days after the race that the team confirmed the news.
While the 36-year-old’s legion of fans around the globe vented fury on social media, the driver himself has now twisted the narrative by saying he is now glad the axe fell when it did.
He has admitted in a podcast appearance he may not have been able to walk away if the decision was left in his own hands.
“Ultimately, I got let go,” he told Ford CEO Jim Farley’s podcast.
“That was the reality at the time. I think once that happened, 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. I was pretty exhausted by it.
“In reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me. I think it would have been hard to be like, ‘I’m done’.
“I think I knew I was probably done because I knew it was harder for me to perform at the level I could. (Fernando) Alonso, these guys are in their forties 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.”
He appeared to suggest he needed to push back against advice he had been receiving from those close to him.
After making the bombshell decision to leave Red Bull for Renault in 2019, Ricciardo’s career was a mess.
Two years with the Alpine team were followed by an unspectacular period with McLaren where he was ultimately sacked. Oscar Piastri was his replacement.
After getting a rich payout from McLaren, Ricciardo returned to Red Bull as a reserve driver in 2023. With the world championship team desperately failing to find a driver to complement Max Verstappen, Ricciardo was given a final shot with Racing Bulls before it all ended at Singapore in 2024.
When asked about what advice he would give to other athletes battling with retirement, Ricciardo responded by saying: “Remove any fairytales. Remove your ego as much as possible.
“There’s people that love you and will still tell you that you’re 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.”.
“If 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.
“You always want to believe everyone’s looking out for you, and they probably still are, but they don’t know what it’s like to be you and in your situation.
“Give yourself enough alone time. You’ll find the answer.
“Last year, my retirement year, I gave myself a lot of time to just reflect on my career and to be at peace with it.
