Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo is an Australian racing driver who drives for RB in the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship.

Daniel Joseph Ricciardo was born on July 1, 1989, to his father, Giuseppe "Joe" Ricciardo, who was born in Ficarra, Messina, in Italy, and his mother, Grace Ricciardo, whose parents also come from Italy. The Australian driver was born in Perth, Western Australia, Australia, and he represents Australia in his racing career.

The Australian driver started karting at the age of nine, and after a very challenging karting career, Ricciardo managed to finish sixth in the 2007 Formula Renault 2.0 Italia, earning himself a spot in the Red Bull Junior Team.

One year after that, the Honey Badger managed to win the Formula Renault 2.0 WEC, and in 2009, the Aussie won the British Formula 3 Championship. Naturally, his career progressed to Formula One, where he debuted in 2011 for the HRT Formula 1 Team at the 2011 British Grand Prix, but he couldn't finish better than 18th in the 11 races that he entered.

But already the next season, Ricciardo got a spot at the Scuderia Toro Rosso, and after two relatively successful seasons in the team, he got promoted to Red Bull Racing, replacing retiring Mark Webber alongside four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

Already in his first season with Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo outscored more experienced Vettel, earning 238 points, compared to the German's 167, and placing third in the World Drivers' Championship, only behind two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

But despite finishing third twice in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, Ricciardo never managed to win the championship, and he departed Red Bull Racing after the 2018 season.

After the 2021 Formula One season, Ricciardo received a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Australia Day Honours.

The Australian raced for Renault F1 Team for two seasons, and a relatively unsuccessful period with the French team was followed by even worse two seasons when he raced alongside Lando Norris in the McLaren F1 Team.

That resulted in Ricciardo eventually leaving the team, and even though it seemed that he wouldn't appear on the grid in the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, things changed during the season.

Early in the season, the Aussie signed as Red Bull's third driver, but after unsatisfactory results of Nyck de Vries in AlphaTauri, Ricciardo replaced the Dutch driver in AlphaTauri (which would be renamed to VCARB / RB in 2024) after the tenth race of the season.

He continued with the same team into 2024. Red Bull leaders (Red Bull owns VCARB) opened up about the decision to bring the Honey Badger back into their family. The expectations were that he would clearly outperform his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, but that didn't happen.

After a series of performances that didn't live up to VCARB's expectations, the F1 team decided to part ways with Daniel Ricciardo (following the 18th round of the 2024 season in Singapore) and replace him with Liam Lawson.

Although the Australian driver didn't reveal his plans for the future, it seemed like the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix was probably the last Formula 1 race in his career.