Daniel Ricciardo on his biggest Formula 1 mistake: “I would have stayed”

Daniel Ricciardo now takes a critical view of his departure from Red Bull: he believes he missed out on his best chance of winning the Formula 1 World Championship as a result

Former Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo spoke on the Beyond The Grid podcast about his departure from Red Bull during the 2018 season – and about how he would assess the situation differently today than he did back then. Ricciardo said: “In a nutshell: yes, I wish I’d stayed. Do I really want to know what would have happened? The answer is yes. So whether you want to call it regret or curiosity or whatever, I’d say: yes.”

All things considered, he would “absolutely” have had the best chance of winning the Formula 1 World Championship at Red Bull. “From that perspective, I find myself thinking: ‘Yes, I would have loved to know what that alternative reality would have looked like if I’d stayed.’ I don’t want to say it haunts me, but it’s that one unknown where I find myself thinking: I’d so love to know how that would have turned out.”

Ricciardo versus Verstappen: No obstacle

Had he stayed at Red Bull beyond 2018, Ricciardo would have continued to compete against Max Verstappen there. That wouldn’t have put him off: “I have no doubt in my ability that I could have continued to keep up with Max,” said Ricciardo. However, he considers it “unfair” to claim that he would have beaten Verstappen in a direct team duel.

In fact, Ricciardo finished ahead of Verstappen in the drivers’ championship in two out of their three years together at Red Bull: in 2016, Verstappen’s first season at Red Bull, and in 2017, Ricciardo scored more points on both occasions. In 2018, however, Verstappen turned the tables – and Ricciardo moved to Renault at the end of the season.

“I left back then because I felt I’d got a bit too comfortable and had become a bit complacent,” said Ricciardo. “I think there was a desire to try something different.”

Ricciardo admits: things went downhill after Red Bull

But the move to Renault did not bring Ricciardo the success he had hoped for: in two years, he managed just two podium finishes; his best World Championship result was fifth place in the drivers’ standings.

He then moved on to McLaren, where, although he celebrated his eighth and final Grand Prix victory, he was clearly overshadowed by Lando Norris overall. Ricciardo subsequently failed to impress at AlphaTauri – or, as it later became known, the Racing Bulls team – either, meaning his Formula 1 career came to an end in the autumn of 2024.

Ricciardo therefore sees his departure from Red Bull as a key moment in his subsequent Formula 1 career: “From that point on, the river became a bit winding and wild.” But that’s easy to say with hindsight. In 2018, he says, the decision did not seem “quite so black and white” to him.