Daniel Ricciardo drops Ford Racing teaser – off‑road detour or just a wink?
Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t turned a competitive wheel since his brief, bruising return with Racing Bulls wound down after Singapore 2024. He’s said more than once he’s moved on from F1. Then came Thursday: two photos, four words, and the internet did what it does.
“More around the corner…” he wrote on X, posting a close-up of Ford’s freshly revived “Ford Racing” badge alongside a Ford Raptor — a truck he’s never exactly been shy about admiring. For an eight-time grand prix winner who’s been quiet on social for months, it was enough to light the fuse.
Here’s the post:
More around the corner…
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo)September 4, 2025
The timing wasn’t random. On the same day, Ford announced that its motorsport arm is reverting from “Ford Performance” back to “Ford Racing,” pitching it as a move to tighten the link between what wins on Sunday and what gets built for Monday. Pair that news with Ricciardo’s post and you’ve got a neat little breadcrumb trail for fans to follow.
Inevitably, some connected dots all the way back to Milton Keynes. Red Bull and Ford are set to debut their jointly developed power unit in 2026 when F1’s new regulations arrive. Cue the fantasy: Ricciardo, back in a Red Bull-adjacent seat, reunited with the team where he won seven of his eight F1 races.
Reality check: highly unlikely. Ricciardo’s exit from Red Bull’s second team last year came after he didn’t quite make the case for a full factory recall, and he’s been consistent since about not chasing an F1 comeback. The 2026 door exists, technically. It’s just not the one he’s been knocking on.
So what is he hinting at? The Ford Racing rebrand provides plenty of options that feel a lot more Ricciardo-2025. Think brand ambassador work with a side of seat time, content pieces that involve a Raptor and a lot of dust, or a proper crack at something off-road. Dakar? Baja 1000? The vibe of that post leans dirt over downforce.
For someone who’s stepped away from the weekly grind and PR carwash of F1, an off-road program would make sense. It’s still competitive. It’s still dangerous enough to scratch the itch. And it’s very on-brand for Ford to put a globally known, camera-friendly driver in the middle of a big relaunch campaign, especially one that promises to break down the walls between racing and road-going hardware.
None of this confirms a thing, of course. Ricciardo knows how to play to the gallery, and he’s always had impeccable timing — on-track in his pomp, and off it when he wants the spotlight. A cryptic tease buys him a news cycle without committing to anything more than a caption.
But it does feel like movement. Since he left the F1 grid after Singapore last year, he hasn’t dipped a toe into another series, which only made Thursday’s breadcrumb all the more interesting. If there is “more around the corner,” as he says, expect it to look and sound like Ford Racing’s new pitch: accessible, loud, and not confined to a grand prix paddock.
Until then, it’s two images, a four-word promise, and a lot of fans refreshing their feeds. That’s a familiar place for Ricciardo to have us — waiting, curious, and secretly hoping the next time we see him in a helmet, there’s a rooster tail of sand behind him rather than an F1 rear wing.
