Daniel Ricciardo’s slate is finally clean. Twelve months on from Monza 2024, the last penalty point on his FIA superlicence has expired — a tidy administrative full stop on a career that quietly wound down last year.
Ricciardo’s final F1 start came at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix with Racing Bulls before the team turned to Liam Lawson for the last six races. Since then, the 36-year-old has kept a healthy distance from the paddock and, by all sensible measures, a comeback isn’t on the cards.
That lingering point came from Monza, of all places — the circuit of Ricciardo’s last victory with McLaren in 2021. His return there in 2024 was messy: a five-second penalty for squeezing Nico Hülkenberg off at the start, followed by a procedural misstep when his front jackman touched the car too early while he was serving that penalty. The error earned him an extra 10 seconds for failing to serve the original sanction correctly. He came home 13th and left with a single penalty point, which, per F1’s system introduced in 2014, stayed on the books for 12 months. As of September 1, it’s gone.
It won’t change anything for Ricciardo, but the timing does offer a neat bit of symmetry. The sport rolls on; Faenza, his last F1 address, has just rediscovered the podium. At last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, rookie Isack Hadjar finished third behind race winner Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, delivering Racing Bulls’ first rostrum since Baku 2021 in the AlphaTauri days. You don’t need to be a romantic to imagine Ricciardo allowing himself a smile at that.
He’s been busy finding another gear away from the grid anyway. Ricciardo recently made a rare public appearance at a conference on the Gold Coast, beard and all, talking candidly about year one after F1. “This year has been a bit of self-exploration,” he said. “I lived this crazy high-speed life for so long and this year I’ve sat into a little bit of stillness. I’ve had a lot of time. I’ve done some hiking. I was in Alaska a few weeks ago and didn’t get mauled by a grizzly, which was a bonus.”
There’s been the odd bump in the road — a dirtbike spill in Queensland last month led to a minor collarbone injury and a precautionary stop at Mossman Hospital — but by all accounts, spirits remain high. And the perspective seems different. “I’ve been trying to figure out who I am other than this race car driver,” he added. “I’ve come to appreciate the little thing more and the importance of family and friends. I’ve always been driven and that sometimes leads you to being selfish, so I’m trying to learn to be a bit more selfless and become a better listener.”
That’s not a driver plotting a seat-fitting. It’s a former eight-time grand prix winner finding comfort in a life that doesn’t revolve around a stopwatch. The penalty points storyline — a quirk of F1’s disciplinary system that only really makes headlines when someone is skirting a race ban — is just the final admin cleared from his file.
For those keeping score, the Monza tally represented the last live mark on Ricciardo’s record. The squeeze on Hülkenberg brought the five-second time hit and one penalty point; the jackman’s early touch turned a routine stop into a 10-second mistake; and that was that. His Singapore start a few weeks later was the curtain call.
The sport he leaves behind is in a restless mood. Racing Bulls have a rookie on the box. McLaren are winning again. Verstappen remains Verstappen. And Ricciardo? He’s hiking, healing and bearding — and, as of this week, he’s officially out of the stewards’ bad books too.
A clean licence, a calmer life. That sounds about right.
