Daniel Ricciardo issues emotional 'fairytale' advice in frank admission

Daniel Ricciardo believes any driver contemplating F1 retirement should "remove any fairytales" from the decision-making process.

After being dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022, Ricciardo returned to the Red Bull camp for 2023 as third driver, before replacing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri ahead of the Hungarian GP.

The Australian hoped that strong performances alongside Yuki Tsunoda would have allowed him to rejoin Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen, but he failed to do so and was jettisoned in favour of Liam Lawson after the 2024 Singapore GP. 

The eight-time grand prix winner has firmly shut the door on ever appearing in F1 again, and detailing his thought process about calling time on his career, the Perth-native has given an emotionally frank account of the thoughts he went through at the time. 

"It is easier said than done, but remove any fairytales, remove your ego ultimately as much as possible," Ricciardo told the Drive podcast with Ford boss Jim Farley when asked if he had any advice for younger drivers.

"There's people who love you and will still tell you that you're great and you can do it, but as much as you love them, you need to just close the door and make the decision on your own and be really honest with yourself.

"If I had to the end of the last year, I think I would have still had these thoughts and had the conversation with myself because I knew it was becoming harder for me, and I had to dig really deep to pull out a result that I was proud of.

"You always want to believe that everyone is looking out for you, and they probably still are, but they don't know what it is like to be you and in your situation.

"So I would stress to give yourself enough time alone to really get the answer, and if you find the time, you'll get it. 

'So my retirement year, I gave myself a lot of time to just reflect on my career and to be at peace with it, and if I was constantly surrounded by people, I never would have had that."