Daniel Ricciardo made his F1 debut in 2011 with HRT, a backmarker team, as part of a deal with Red Bull’s junior programme. He outperformed his teammate immediately, moved to Toro Rosso in 2012, and by 2014 had been promoted to the main Red Bull team — Sebastian Vettel’s old seat, with expectations to match.
He delivered fast. Three wins in his first Red Bull season alone: Canada, passing a brakeless Rosberg with two laps left, then Hungary and Belgium back to back. Third in the championship that year, ahead of four-time champion Vettel in the same garage. A two-year drought followed as Red Bull’s Renault engine fell behind, before he returned to the top step in Malaysia 2016 — the race where Hamilton’s dominant lead ended in an engine failure, and Ricciardo held off a young Max Verstappen to win it.
Monaco 2018 became his signature drive. His MGU-K failed with 50 laps still to go, costing him a quarter of his engine power. He nursed the car home anyway, holding off Vettel to the flag — a win from pole he never got to repeat.
He left Red Bull for Renault in 2019, managed two quiet seasons, then joined McLaren in 2021 and immediately delivered one more win at Monza — his eighth and last, and the last of his career at the top level. Two more McLaren seasons never rediscovered that form. He returned to Red Bull’s sister team as a mid-season replacement in 2023, continued through 2024, and made his final start at Singapore that year.
Final numbers: 257 starts, 8 wins, 3 poles, 32 podiums, 1,329 points. No championship. But very few drivers left the sport more loved by the paddock than the one carrying a shoe full of champagne.
[ Daniel Ricciardo, HRT, Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing, Renault, McLaren, AlphaTauri, Racing Bulls, Canadian Grand Prix 2014, Malaysian Grand Prix 2016, Monaco Grand Prix 2018, Italian Grand Prix 2021, F1 career, F1 history ]
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