Daniel Ricciardo 'grateful' for Red Bull sacking which ended F1 career

Daniel Ricciardo has expressed his gratitude that Red Bull decided to sack him from his seat in F1 in 2024.

Having lost his McLaren seat at the end of 2022, Ricciardo was given an F1 lifeline as the third driver for what was then AlphaTauri in '23, and replaced Nyck de Vries ahead of the Hungarian GP that year.

After then missing the Dutch, Italian, Singapore, Japanese, and Qatar Grands Prix after breaking his hand at Zandvoort, Ricciardo kept the seat until the 2024 Singapore GP, but was ultimately released from his contract following the Marina Bay race.

The eight-time grand prix has largely kept a low profile since his exit, but is a Ford ambassador as he gave a candid interview to its motorsport boss Jim Farley's podcast, touching on his exit. 

"I had been let go twice in the last two years, and it had also taken a lot out of me," Ricciardo told the DRIVE podcast.

"I'd put my soul into it, and I did feel pretty exhausted by it, and on reflection, I was grateful that they made the decision for me.

"Because I think it would have been hard to be like: 'I'm done', because I probably knew I was done, because it was harder for me to perform at the level of guys like [Fernando] Alonso in their 40s.

"They're in Formula 1 competing very highly, and yeah, for whatever reason I lost a little bit of something, and it is okay to admit that, it is fine."