Effective immediately, F1 has announced that eight-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo will be leaving Visa Cash App RB and will be replaced by New Zealander Liam Lawson. The announcement comes mid-season as Lawson is expected to race the final six races of the season. The Australian driver only last returned to the F1 race seat last year in Hungary with AlphaTauri and later stayed on when the team became RB. He was left without a seat in 2023 when he departed McLaren.
In an emotional post on Instagram, Ricciardo wrote and ode to the sport and a note to his fans, “I’ve loved this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and been a journey. To the teams and individuals that have played their part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me…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.” RB’s Team Principal Lauren Mekies released a statement, thanking Ricciardo for his efforts theses last two seasons, “He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the Team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit. Daniel has been a true gentleman both on and off the track and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.” Ricciardo’s last race was the Singapore Grand Prix this past Sunday where he finished 18th.
Over the past 14 seasons in F1, he has been an eight-time race winner, finishing at the podium 32 times and placing in the top three of the World Drivers’ Championship twice. In total, across 257 races, he scored 1,329 points. This season, he scored points in five occasions that lands him in the 14th place, just 10 points behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. It is unclear at the moment if Ricciardo’s futur in the sport will involve a race seat on the 2025 Formula 1 grid. Ricciardo first joined the Red Bull Academy as a teenager, making his F1 debut for Spanish outfit HRT in 2011 before joining Red Bull’S sister team, Toro Rosso. Stepping in for Ricciardo is now 22-year-old Lawson who will make his debut as a full-time racer at the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas next month.
Thank you Daniel 💙
⁰Laurent Mekies on Daniel: “He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the Team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit.”#F1 #VCARB pic.twitter.com/cqKrbFAehU— Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (@visacashapprb) September 26, 2024
