The news had been an open secret for a week, with Ricciardo in tears after last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix with his F1 career seemingly over for good.
The announcement was made on Thursday afternoon, with RB confirming that Liam Lawson will replace the Australian for the final six races of the 2024 season.
It is expected that the New Zealander will take the seat full-time in 2025 alongside Yuki Tsunoda, or could even replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull if he performs very well.
If the former is the case, there is only one seat left on the grid for next season at Sauber, but Ricciardo is not in the running for it.
It brings to an end the popular Aussie’s career in the sport which began back in 2011 with HRT, going onto race for RB (as well as when they were previously known as Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri), Red Bull, Renault and McLaren.
In a statement on Instagram, the 35-year-old wrote: ‘I’ve loved this sport my whole life. It’s wild and wonderful and been a journey.
‘To the teams and individuals that have played their part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me haha thank you.
‘It’ll always have its highs and lows but it’s been fun and truth be told I wouldn’t change it. Until the next adventure.’
Ricciardo spent five seasons at Red Bull, winning seven races and going wheel-to-wheel with champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, finishing a career best third in the standings in 2014 and 2016.
Ill-fated moves to Renault and McLaren saw his form dip considerably, aside from a final victory in Italy in 2021, and he was eventually dropped by the British team.
He returned to Red Bull as a reserve driver in 2023 and was given a second chance to race with their junior team, with Ricciardo hoping to launch a comeback and replace Perez at the reigning champions.
But a series of average performances over the past 12 months means that dream won’t come true and Red Bull/RB have been forced to drop him in order to get the highly-rated Lawson on the grid.
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