Five worst moments of Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career including Monaco Grand Prix misery

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Visa Cash App RB have dropped Daniel Ricciardo from their Formula 1 driver line-up, so F1 Oversteer looks at the worst moments from the Australian’s career on the grid.

It may be that Ricciardo never lines up on a Formula 1 grid again after Liam Lawson replaced the Perth native at Visa Cash App RB. Lawson will earn his season debut in the United States Grand Prix and contest the final six rounds of the campaign to try and get the seat next year.

Red Bull have benched Ricciardo to see how Lawson performs for RB beside Yuki Tsunoda to assess his credibility for the seat with their sister outfit full-time in 2025. Ricciardo could yet return to RB, too, but has questioned if it is worth it without a way back to Red Bull on offer.

Being dropped from the Visa Cash App RB line-up before the 2024 Formula 1 season is done will forever rank amongst the worst moments of Ricciardo’s career. It is a career filled with a host of highs since the Australian debuted in F1 at the 2011 British Grand Prix racing for HRT.

READ MORE: The best moments of Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career including first win and more

Ricciardo has gone on to enter 258 and start 257 Grand Prix – only failing to take to the grid for the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. He has also taken eight wins, three poles and 32 podiums so far. But, with that in mind, F1 Oversteer looks at the worst moments of Ricciardo’s F1 career.

Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from his home podium at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix

The 2014 season proved to be dominated by Mercedes after Formula 1 introduced the 1.6L V6 turbo-hybrid power unit. But the first race of the era only saw 14 of the 22 cars take the finish at the Australian Grand Prix following a wealth of engine issues up and down the grid.

It all appeared set to see Ricciardo stand on his home podium for the first time, as well, after finishing the Australian GP in P2 for Red Bull. But his joy was quickly smashed into pieces on debut for the team from Milton Keynes as Ricciardo was disqualified from the Australian GP.

The stewards found Ricciardo’s car in breach of Article 5.1.4 of F1’s technical regulations as his RB10 exceeded the 100kg/h fuel mass flow limit consistently throughout the race. Yet it took until five hours after the chequered flag waved for the stewards to disqualify Ricciardo.

Red Bull immediately appealed the stewards’ decision to disqualify Ricciardo from P2 in the 2014 Australian GP. The team cited ‘inconsistences’ with the FIA-issued fuel flow meter and had used their own for the race. But the International Court of Appeal upheld the decision.

Red Bull’s error cost Daniel Ricciardo the win at the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix in the pits

Monte Carlo marvelled at Ricciardo’s might after qualifying for the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix saw the Australian register the maiden pole position of his Formula 1 career. But his joy was turned to dismay on race day as Red Bull botched a pit stop and cost Ricciardo his likely win.

Ricciardo had controlled the race over the early wet conditions and left Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in his wake. The Silver Arrows drivers, despite being title rivals, also agreed to swap positions in P2 and P3 with Rosberg’s lack of pace holding Hamilton up.

Conditions improving changed the face of the race, however, as Red Bull called Ricciardo in to trade his full wets for Pirelli’s intermediate tyres. Mercedes took advantage of the call to keep Hamilton on full wets after gaining the race lead around Monte Carlo’s narrow streets.

Hamilton also kept his full wets in a good enough condition to only hit the pit lane once the time came to take slick tyres at the end of Lap 31 of 78 with Ricciardo hot on his heels. The circuit was still damp, however, so Ricciardo punished his inters before pitting one lap later.

But while Red Bull’s mechanics greeted Ricciardo to remove his inters, they were not ready with his slick tyres. Their pit crew eventually scurried out of the garage with new tyres, but the damage was done as Ricciardo emerged back on the track right behind Hamilton again.

Had Red Bull not botched their pit stop, Ricciardo would have likely overcut Hamilton to get the lead of the 2016 Monaco GP back. Instead, he finished the race 7.252 seconds from the winner, and Ricciardo could not hide the pain on the podium which haunted the Australian.

“Even four years on, I remember this day in so much detail. It’s like a video in my mind,” he wrote on social media in 2020. “I can picture myself driving through the corner before the tunnel after THAT pit stop and I was so angry.

“I didn’t want to talk to anyone afterwards, I certainly didn’t want any sympathy… It was just pure rage. I remember standing on the podium with Lewis, he’d won a race that I had under control. I just didn’t want to be there.”

Ricciardo added: “I’m not going to lie, Monaco 2016 haunted me for two years.”

Daniel Ricciardo had the worst crash of his Formula 1 career at the 2018 Azerbaijan GP

Throughout his Formula 1 career, Ricciardo has rarely been involved in or caused big crashes with other drivers. But the fallout of his crash with Max Verstappen whilst teammates at Red Bull in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2018 made it one of Ricciardo’s worst on-track moments.

Ricciardo initially passed Verstappen for fourth place on Lap 35 of the Azerbaijan GP after he flew around the Dutchman’s outside. But the Perth native soon saw his teammate return to the circuit right in front after Verstappen did the overcut as the second Red Bull driver to pit.

Verstappen could not break away during his out lap, gifting Ricciardo DRS down the long pit straight. The Dutchman also bought the Australian’s dummy for a move around the outside into T1 starting Lap 40. But as Ricciardo changed over for the inside, Verstappen cut across.

The Dutchman’s late defensive move took the air from Ricciardo’s front wing and forced the Australian to lock up his front tyres. Ricciardo was just a passenger as his car then ploughed into Verstappen from behind and took both Red Bull drivers out of the 2018 Azerbaijan GP.

Yet despite Verstappen’s late move causing their collision, Ricciardo felt Red Bull backed the Dutchman over him regarding the incident. A belief that Red Bull rallied around Verstappen would help tempt Ricciardo to leave the team when his contract expired at the end of 2018.

Ricciardo also had a substantial crash with fellow Red Bull academy product Alex Albon later in his career at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix. The Australian and London-born Thai collided before Turn 3 on the opening lap at Suzuka when Ricciardo failed to see Albon in his mirrors.

Williams racer Albon got the run on Ricciardo after the Visa Cash App RB driver struggled for grip exiting Turn 2. But as Albon put his car to right with the overlap, Ricciardo drifted across slightly as the Perth native saw the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll was approaching on his left.

Their crash took Ricciardo and Albon out of the 2024 Japanese GP and forced the race to be red flag. Neither driver was deemed to be at predominant fault for their incident which left the pair buried in the barriers after Albon’s front wing sliced Ricciardo’s rear tyre off the rim.

Leaving Red Bull to join Renault proved to be a huge mistake for Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo announced his decision to leave Red Bull for Renault from the 2019 season during the summer break in August 2018. He viewed it to be ‘one of the most difficult decisions’ in his F1 career as Ricciardo had been a part of the Red Bull family since 2008 as a junior driver.

Multiple factors played into Ricciardo’s decision, including the fallout of his 2018 Azerbaijan GP crash with Verstappen plus concerns regarding Red Bull’s future engine partnership with Honda. But the Australian’s decision to walk away from Milton Keynes proved to be an error.

Ricciardo even agreed to join McLaren from the 2021 season only 18 months into the two-year contract he signed to join Renault. McLaren used the delayed start to the 2020 season to tempt him away to replace Carlos Sainz having failed to finish on a podium once in 2019.

His best finish as a Renault driver in 2019 was P4 in the Italian Grand Prix but Ricciardo was often settling for P6 and lower. He did get two podiums in 2020, though, with P3 finishes at the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring and at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix around Imola.

Joining McLaren then proved to be another short-lived spell as the Woking outfit ultimately dropped Ricciardo 18 months into a three-year contract in August 2022. The papaya squad decided to move on and sign Oscar Piastri to replace his compatriot from the 2023 season.

Ricciardo endured two miserable seasons at McLaren after forever struggling to get to grips with the front end of their car. He built his career in Formula 1 for being the last of the late brakers but struggled to with McLaren, even if Ricciardo won the Italian Grand Prix in 2021.

It proved to be the only real highlight of Ricciardo’s time at McLaren as he returned them to the top step of a podium for the first time since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. Ricciardo led teammate Lando Norris home for a one-two after the Briton sacrificed his own bid for glory.

Losing his seat at McLaren even left Ricciardo off the Formula 1 grid entirely for the start of 2023. He instead had to accept a reserve driver role at Red Bull, which led to replacing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri 11 rounds into the season and returning to the junior team in Faenza.

All the while Ricciardo struggled, Red Bull also rose with Verstappen. He finished third in the F1 drivers’ championship in 2019 and 2020 before winning the title in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Ricciardo had taken third place in 2014 and 2016 but has never been higher than fifth since.

Daniel Ricciardo didn’t think his 2022 ‘could get worse’ before the Dutch Grand Prix

McLaren ultimately decided to drop Ricciardo two years into a three-year contract after the Australian started the 2022 season with four top-10 Grand Prix finishes through the first 13 rounds. Norris, meanwhile, showed the car could deliver more with 10 and a podium in P3.

Ricciardo would only finish two further Grand Prix in the points for McLaren, as well, while Norris picked up an additional seven from nine rounds. The 2022 Dutch Grand Prix was an especially troubling time for the Australian as he finished in P17 whilst the Briton took P7.

Only Williams driver Nicholas Latifi also finished the 2022 Dutch GP behind Ricciardo, who had qualified in P17 when Norris put his McLaren P7 on the grid. The Perth native failed to make any progress in the race at Zandvoort to stay on 19 points in 15 rounds to Norris’ 82.

The Dutch GP left Ricciardo conceding that his campaign had hit rock bottom in one of the worst moments of his Formula 1 career. It was also hardly the advert he wanted to deliver potential suitors with Alpine, Williams, Haas and AlphaTauri in the market for 2023 drivers.

“I feel like there’s been a lot of bad [races],” Ricciardo admitted after the 2022 Dutch GP. “I say it’s the worst, and I didn’t think it could get worse.”