Daniel Ricciardo didn’t get the sunset lap he wanted. He left Formula 1 after a bruising 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, 18th at the flag and fully aware the fairy tale was off the table. But if the racing door shut with a thud, the paddock didn’t lock behind him. His long, layered history with the Red Bull orbit has quietly opened a new lane.
In the days after Singapore, Visa Cash App RB confirmed what the guard of honour in hospitality had already hinted: Ricciardo’s F1 stint was over. Team boss Laurent Mekies called him a “true gentleman” and thanked him for two seasons of graft. That matters in this sport. Relationships often outlast lap times.
“It was obviously not the fairy tale ending; Singapore was hard for me and it definitely played with the heartstrings,” Ricciardo later told Esses Magazine, reflecting on the chapter close. “But I think it speaks to the relationships I had with a lot of the team members and people in the business and Red Bull.”
Those ties have already borne fruit. Ricciardo has stepped into a global racing ambassador role with Ford, Red Bull’s incoming power unit partner from 2026, telling the world in September his “racing days are behind me.” He’s also thrown his weight behind VCARB’s F1 Academy programme, helping shape apparel for rising Brazilian talent Rafaela Ferreira — kit designed to work in a garage and look decent outside of it. It’s not a vanity project; it’s Ricciardo turning a veteran driver’s eye for detail into something tangible.
And that eye is still razor sharp, even if the grid passes him by on Sundays. “It can probably frustrate at times, but it can also be appreciated,” he said of the relentless standards he brings from F1. “Like, yes, Daniel can be f—ing annoying, but he also really cares, and he’s looking at every detail. F1 is literally on another planet… Everyday life just does not operate like F1, and if you treat it like that, you will just go crazy.”
What’s interesting — and unusual for a driver with his wattage — is the choice to step back, not sideways. No half-in, half-out reserve role chasing a late-season cameo. No calendar stuffed with one-offs. The 36-year-old has pivoted cleanly, and convincingly, into projects he can shape rather than simply front.
At the centre of that is Enchanté, the apparel line he’s been growing since before the exit. The mission statement comes straight from teenage Ricciardo: don’t sell out. “Probably, if I printed a t-shirt with just my face on it, all my fans would buy it,” he said with a grin. “They’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the coolest shirt in the world.’ And I think it’s the worst shirt in the world… This was a business built around wanting to do cool sh—. It wasn’t built around, ‘Oh, let’s get rich.’”
There’s an honesty to that which makes sense if you’ve followed his career. Ricciardo has always been more than the grin; underneath the jokes is a racer who set a high bar for himself and the people around him. That doesn’t just switch off. The difference now is where the energy goes. “I’m 36 now, and pretty much my whole life revolved around me,” he admitted. “So now it’s nice to take a step back and give that kind of energy to other people.”
For Red Bull fans, his footprint remains familiar even as the cast evolves. The senior team carries on with Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez, while Visa Cash App RB pushes forward with its next wave. In the wider 2025 picture, Oscar Piastri picks up the Australian mantle at McLaren. The sport moves quickly — it always does — but that doesn’t erase a legacy. Seven wins in Red Bull colours don’t fade, and neither does the sense that Ricciardo was, and is, an important piece of the culture that produced them.
It’s also notable how carefully he’s navigated the goodbye. No bitterness. No pointed barbs. Just a very public acceptance that timing is everything and sometimes it turns on you. Singapore was a tell: a late pit stop for a sunset shot at fastest lap, a slow walk back through a guard of honour, a driver making peace with the last page as he wrote it.
There’s a version of this story where Ricciardo clings on, taking any available seat and rolling the dice. This isn’t that story. Instead, he’s building a second act with intention — part brand, part mentorship, part manufacturer ambassador who still knows exactly what a car should feel like at the limit. It’s not the rush of Turn 1, but it is very Daniel Ricciardo: personable, detail-led, and, crucially, his.
So no, it wasn’t a fairy tale. It rarely is in F1. But there’s something satisfying about the clarity of his next lap. The smile is still there. It just shows up in different paddocks now — and on the sleeves of the next generation coming through.
