Ricciardo 'Chose Not To' Make Announcement About His Exit Public Says Coulthard

Friday, 04 October 2024 at 14:00

Former F1 driver and F1TV co-commentator David Coulthard revealed he has heard that it was Daniel Ricciardo's choice not to announce his departure from VCARB.

Starting from the upcoming race weekend in Austin, Daniel Ricciardo will no longer drive for the RB / VCARB Formula 1 team, as he was replaced by 22-year-old Liam Lawson.

The 2024 Singapore Grand Prix was, therefore, Ricciado's last weekend as a racing driver in Formula 1. However, it felt like the Honey Badger didn't get to say a proper goodbye.

While it was suspected that the 18th round of the 2024 season in Singapore might be his last, no one from VCARB or Red Bull would confirm this.

Helmut Marko recently confirmed in his column for SpeedWeek that the 34-year-old F1 driver knew well ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix that it would be his last race.

Yet Ricciardo still had to go through multiple awkward interviews where he had to dodge answers and pretend that the decision was still to be made after the weekend.

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Many pundits and F1 fans criticized Red Bull and VCARB for not letting the Honey Badger say a proper goodbye. Marko addressed these comments, saying Ricciardo's exit could not be announced sooner due to "a variety of factors and obligations."

Interestingly, former F1 driver and ambassador for the Red Bull brand, David Coulthard, revealed he had heard that Daniel Ricciardo himself chose not to reveal that Singapore would be his last race. He said on the Formula for Success podcast:

"One thing that's interesting – rumor, rather that I've seen it with my own eyes – was that he actually knew from a few races back that it would be finishing in Singapore. He had the opportunity, obviously, to make that public and he chose not to."

"I know there's been a lot of reaction negatively people going, 'Why was he not given that opportunity?' But I heard that he was given that opportunity and chose not to."

"So I'm trying to kind of figure that out in my head, whether that's just a personal thing, didn't want to be distracted by that, or whether that's some sort of media master stroke, which will just gain even more mileage when I imagine he will, or should, turn up in Austin and Vegas – he's big in America – two great opportunities for him to get a lot of air time and make it all about him, where maybe it would have been mixed into a Grand Prix weekend in Singapore."