Oscar Piastri was at the front of the field in Singapore while Daniel Ricciardo was at the rear. PETER COSTER reports on the collapse of a great career.
Danny Ric put in the fastest lap of the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday in what is likely to be his last race in Formula One.
It came as he finished last and unable to find the form that won him eight races, seven with Red Bull and one with McLaren.
Red Bull didn’t want him to leave, McLaren sacked him and no one, least of all the Australian driver himself, has been able to explain his failing fortunes.
In Singapore, he sat trying to control his emotions in the car before being recognised by a guard of honour as he walked back to the Visa Red Bull hospitality suite.
So, it’s goodbye to a driver who could have been world champion, who was one of the five best drivers on the grid, the self-styled Honey Badger who had the fierce little creature painted on his race helmet.
Daniel Ricciardo was fast and furious as a racer and fearless as the “king of the late breakers.”
Speculation has been rife for several seasons over his likely departure from F1. He was set the task of proving himself against teammate Yuki Tsunoda when he was given a seat by the Red Bull junior team after a year on the sidelines as a reserve driver for the Red Bull senior team.
Instead he brought out the best in the Japanese driver who consistently outperformed him. A crash last year gave another young driver in New Zealander Liam Lawson his chance when he stood in for Ricciardo in five races.
Throughout all of this, he was championed by Red Bull boss Christian Horner, but there comes a time and it appears to have been Singapore on Sunday.
Inspite of what seems the closure of a remarkable F1 career, there may still be options. Only a few races ago, it seemed Ricciardo was being considered as a replacement for Sergio Perez alongside Max Verstappen.
The Mexican driver has been faring no better than Ricciardo but is safe until the end of the season. Will he be replaced next year?
Will Ricciardo be offered some sort of position that will give Red Bull access to his vast technical experience in F1?
People have been kind in a sport where the title of the behind-the-scenes Drive To Survive television series says it all.
F1 waits for no driver, although it has waited on Daniel Ricciardo longer than most.
No official statement on the Perth driver’s future has been made by Red Bull but something will be said when the driver shuffles have been decided. Ricciardo, Lawson, Perez, Tsunoda and younger contenders in the mix, with fewer seats available than drivers to fill them.
No one, least of all Australian aficionados of the world’s fastest sport, will easily forget Ricciardo among the greats, such as world champions Jack Brabham and Alan Jones and nine times GP winner Mark Webber.
It was the Queanbeyan driver, who was instrumental in unseating Ricciardo at McLaren, as manager and mentor to new Australian star Oscar Piastri.
No blame in that. Nothing personal. It’s business, as Tony Soprano used to say.
Danny Ric might have had regrets, but then again, too few to mention, as Frank Sinatra used to sing.
The one regret the Honey Badger might have mentioned was one that started him down F1’s slippery slope, the decision to resign as Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull.
The now triple world champion had become the driver Red Bull was building its team around, not the now 35-year-old Danny Ric.
Back at Singapore on Sunday it was the younger Australian, the 23-year-old Oscar Piastri who was at the front of the pack while Ricciardo was last, but changing his tyres for the fastest lap in what was at least a recognition of his talents in the absence of a more deserving final curtain.
There will be tens of thousands of few people thinking about that at the next race, the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
Danny Ric has been probably the most popular driver in F1, none more so than in America. If not a send-off in Texas, than surely a fitting tribute at Las Vegas in November or the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi on December 8.
But back again to Singapore on Sunday when McLaren’s Lando Norris led from pole to win from Max Verstappen, with Piastri third.
The Melbourne star was on provisional pole before a mistake saw him overtaken on the time sheets by Norris, Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
There was a strange reversal of fortunes in qualifying for Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell.
Hamilton did not think he would make the top 10. and Verstappen was struggling.
Where was Perez?
The Mexican driver started 13th and finished 10th.
Verstappen’s 59-point lead over Norris in the drivers’ championship was cut to 52 with six races remaining, including three sprints while McLaren stretched its lead over Red bull in the constructors’ championship to 41 points.
Norris said it was “an amazing race” with “a few too many close calls. The car was mega. I could push. We were flying the whole race and at the end could just chill.”
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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