Daniel Ricciardo said he was “grateful” that Red Bull and sister team Racing Bulls replaced him with Liam Lawson late in the 2024 season, speaking on Ford CEO Jim Farley’s podcast. He said the decision was taken out of his hands and that he felt relieved the team made the call because it would have been difficult for him to walk away on his own; the Singapore Grand Prix was his final race of the year.

Ricciardo’s exit closed a 14-season Formula 1 career with 257 starts; sources differ on whether he won seven or eight Grands Prix. He traced the end of his time in the sport to a difficult two-year period following the loss of his McLaren seat in 2022.

He returned mid-2023 to Racing Bulls by taking Nyck de Vries’s seat, but his comeback was interrupted by a broken hand in practice at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. Racing Bulls retained him into 2024 before later replacing him; being let go twice in two years “had taken a lot out of me,” he said, leaving him “pretty exhausted” and prompting him to be honest with himself about stepping away.

Sources