Daniel Ricciardo ‘frustrated’ Fernando Alonso trying to prove a point

Follow us on Google Discover

Daniel Ricciardo has likely raced his last Grand Prix after being dropped by Visa Cash App RB and admits that his career once saw him leave Fernando Alonso ‘frustrated’.

The Australian bowed out of the paddock for, potentially, the final time amid uncomfortable circumstances after the Singapore Grand Prix. While Red Bull refused to confirm that RB are to run Liam Lawson for the rest of 2024 at Marina Bay, Ricciardo was already expected to go.

It led to a rather awkward atmosphere in the paddock, where guests at RB’s hospitality unit gave Ricciardo a guard of honour as he left. But confirmation arrived the following Thursday that Lawson was to replace the Australian, likely marking the end of his career in Formula 1.

Daniel Ricciardo ‘frustrated’ Fernando Alonso at the 2014 German Grand Prix

Should this really be the end of the Perth native’s Formula 1 career, Ricciardo bows out as an eight-time Grand Prix winner. He entered 258 and started 257 races at HRT, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, McLaren, AlphaTauri and Visa Cash App RB since his first at the 2011 British Grand Prix.

But even after three years on the grid and joining Red Bull in 2014, Ricciardo still felt that an array of drivers did not respect him. Alonso was one of the drivers who Ricciardo felt he still lacked the respect of, so sought to prove himself to the Spaniard in the German Grand Prix.

READ MORE: The best moments of Daniel Ricciardo’s career in Formula 1

Ricciardo and Alonso were fighting for position when they came together at Hockenheim in 2014. Ferrari had just pitted their 32-time race winner for new tyres nine laps after Red Bull stopped the at-the-time one-time Grand Prix winner. But Ricciardo was in no mood to yield.

Feeling that Alonso did not respect him still, Ricciardo disregarded having older and harder tyres on his car with eight laps to go. He continually kept fighting back at the Spaniard, who would have expected to breeze through. But Ricciardo felt it was key to gaining his respect.

Ricciardo told the official Formula 1 website: “I was like, ‘No’, this was my chance to fight when I wasn’t expected to and show something. I passed him back straight away into the hairpin. He passed me out of the hairpin, I passed him straight away into the next corner.

“And I think all of a sudden he’s like, ‘Oh, this little [guy’s] not letting this one go! What’s he doing? He knows he’s going to lose this battle’. I was like, ‘Well, let’s see how long I can keep it going’. We kept it going for about four laps and had a really good, unexpected battle.

READ MORE: The five worst moments of Daniel Ricciardo’s career in Formula 1

“Even if it probably frustrated him, because he was losing time to whoever he was trying to catch in front, I think he deep down probably enjoyed it, and probably respected me for putting up a fight when I shouldn’t have.”

Daniel Ricciardo lost the fight but won Fernando Alonso’s respect at Hockenheim

Alonso had re-joined the circuit running in seventh place before his battle with Ricciardo at the 2014 German Grand Prix ensued. It was ultimately a duel that boiled down to the wire with just 0.082 seconds splitting the drivers fighting about P5 and P6 at the chequered flag.

Ricciardo narrowly lost out on the road as Alonso held the position but he won the respect of the two-time Formula 1 world champion. Following confirmation of his departure from RB, Alonso was also among the Formula 1 drivers who wished Ricciardo well for the future.