One crash cost Daniel Ricciardo his ‘goodwill’ behind the scenes at Red Bull

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Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 comeback lasted just 14 months. It was confirmed on Thursday that Liam Lawson would be replacing him at RB for the remainder of the season.

Many felt that the Australian deserved better – not necessarily keeping his drive, but at least receiving clarity on his situation. Ricciardo’s camp were upset with Red Bull because they went into the Singapore weekend not knowing it would be his final race.

Based on his performances, the decision to axe him mid-season is harsh but not unjustifiable. He trails Yuki Tsunoda 12-6 in qualifying and has been knocked out in Q1 more times than he’s reached Q3 (six vs three).

While Ricciardo’s performances have improved, he’s still scored only 12 of RB’s 34 points. Given that he’s 35, Christian Horner could only keep him at the junior team if he was a viable alternative to Sergio Perez, and he’s done little to merit consideration.

F1 fans have almost unanimously objected to the unceremonious nature of his exit. Whether at Abu Dhabi or Singapore, they felt he should have had an official farewell.

Instead, Ricciardo, enveloped in uncertainty, saw his career peter out with P18 at Marina Bay. All he had to show for the weekend was a highly controversial fastest lap.

Dutch Grand Prix crash killed the Daniel Ricciardo ‘buzz’ at Red Bull

Ricciardo is ‘good for business’, so it made commercial sense to bring him back to Red Bull as reserve driver when he lost his McLaren seat at the end of 2022. When he shone in a test at Silverstone, Horner spied an opportunity to relaunch his career at what was then AlphaTauri in place of a struggling Nyck de Vries.

But he’d only completed two races in Hungary and Belgium before sustaining an injury in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix. Potentially distracted by the stricken Oscar Piastri ahead, he locked up into the banked turn three and slid into the tyre wall.

The impact broke Ricciardo’s hand, forcing him to sit out the next five events. That gave Lawson the platform to muscle his way into the team’s plans.

But more than that, according to ESPN’s Nate Saunders, it stripped Ricciardo of any ‘momentum’ and ‘goodwill’ he had. While physically fine, he’s ‘never’ fully recovered from that accident.

Saunders said: “You go to Zandvoort and you have that crash where Ricciardo breaks his hand, and suddenly, all of that momentum, all of that buzz and, to be honest with you, all of that goodwill behind the scenes at Red Bull, I think it just diminished a little bit. He missed those five races.”

“I think that, when you look back at it, was really the killer blow to that aspiration. He’s just never looked the same again, has he?”

Daniel Ricciardo had offer ‘dangling’ from RB rivals for 2023 season

Red Bull offered Ricciardo the reserve role once again before they announced their driver swap. This time, he wasn’t interested.

The eight-time race-winner only joined AlphaTauri because he saw a potential route back to race-winning machinery. Now that it’s closed, he sees little point staying around.

Haas also made a move for Ricciardo after his McLaren exit. Guenther Steiner was ‘dangling’ a seat in front of him, but he wasn’t convinced.

The American outfit have ties to Ferrari but there was little sign at that point that they would deviate from Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz. Only a driver of Lewis Hamilton’s calibre convinced them to do so.