David Coulthard suspects Daniel Ricciardo has pulled off ‘media masterstroke’ to ‘make it all about him’

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Daniel Ricciardo is taking time to decide his next steps after losing his Formula 1 seat with RB. In all likelihood, it ends his career at the highest level.

Ricciardo offered his immediate reaction on Instagram when RB confirmed his exit. Liam Lawson will replace him for the final six races of 2024, and the Australian isn’t thought to be part of the 2025 picture.

His post prompted a deluge of well-wishes from big names in F1. Lewis Hamilton called Ricciardo a legend, while Max Verstappen and Lando Norris also sent messages.

At the age of 35, he may not wish to retire from full-time racing just yet. He’s consistently expressed an interest in NASCAR.

Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde has urged Ricciardo to go into television. He feels he has the personality to thrive in the media and can already look back fondly on a career that featured eight Grand Prix wins.

In an attempt to tap into that charisma, Christian Horner has offered Ricciardo a Red Bull ambassador role. This would likely entail a series of lucrative commercial appearances.

David Coulthard wonders if Daniel Ricciardo blocked RB exit announcement

Damon Hill criticised Red Bull’s handling of Ricciardo’s departure, and many F1 fans have done the same. It wasn’t clear whether or not the Singapore GP last month was his final race.

But speaking on the Formula For Success podcast, David Coulthard claimed that Ricciardo was in fact given the ‘opportunity’ to make an announcement. He actively decided not to.

Coulthard suggested this may have been a deliberate strategy to generate publicity. He reckons Ricciardo will be present at the next race in Austin and the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November.

“I know there’s been a lot of reaction negatively, people going, why was he not given that opportunity?,” Coulthard said. “But I’ve 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 masterstroke, 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.

“[Those are] two great opportunities for him to get a lot of airtime and make it all about him, where maybe it would have been mixed into a Grand Prix weekend in Singapore.”

Felipe Massa upset with Daniel Ricciardo over ‘Crashgate’ joke

Coulthard is a former Red Bull driver who remains involved with the team. That means he likely has authoritative sources within Milton Keynes.

F1 pundits were ‘sworn to secrecy’ over Ricciardo in Singapore, Anthony Davidson says, even though they knew Lawson’s arrival was imminent. If they were aware, then it follows that the driver was too.

Indeed, he’s been trying to fend off the threat of Lawson for much of the season. One of Ricciardo’s helmets may have featured a hidden message of defiance.

Elsewhere, Felipe Massa is upset with Ricciardo over a joke he made about the Crashgate scandal in 2008. Needing a safety car to revive his hope of points from 18th on the grid in Singapore, he jested that F1 should ‘bring [Nelson] Piquet back’.