Daniel’s Last Ride

The sun cracks the horizon of the flat expanse of Texas plains called Del Valle. It steadily ascends over the miles of ranches and prairies that separate the unincorporated city from the bustling scenes of South Congress and Rainey Street in Austin.

The day arrives at nearly every square foot of real estate, save for Turn 1 of the Circuit of The Americas (COTA); an enormous shadow cast by an 80-foot wide American flag that weighs 86 pounds and takes a handful of people to raise — a dozen if it’s windy — keeps that patch of track dark. It’s Thursday, which means it’s Media Day at the 2024 United States Grand Prix.

After the Singapore Grand Prix, Racing Bulls announced that this weekend would be Daniel Ricciardo’s last for the team. With the exception of a few social media posts, today will be the first time the Australian driver addresses his future. 

The Stake Formula 1 social media team, filming driver Valterri Bottas preparing for a bike ride around the track, is interrupted by an unexpected commotion. Ricciardo rides into the paddock atop a white Appaloosa with brown speckles, flanked by a fiddle player and a howling troubadour cradling a shining Gibson acoustic guitar. A gaggle of cameras surrounds them as they stride down the line of the teams’ hospitality caravans. Ricciardo sits beneath a wide-brimmed Stetson, wearing an ornate honky-tonk top with badgers stitched on the chest. 

If everything is, indeed, “bigger in Texas,” then there’s no better place to bid “adiós” to a man whose larger-than-life personality is eclipsed only by his grin. 

In an unexpectedly competitive season, with the championship very much up for grabs, the media’s focus sits squarely on Ricciardo. He fields endless configurations of the same questions. His answers dance between his tongue-in-cheek confidence and sincere melancholy. Yet, the somber tone is punctuated with a look of determination. 

Beginning at the now defunct HRT, Ricciardo was quickly placed in the seat of Red Bull’s junior team, then called Torro Rosso. He was soon elevated to the senior team alongside Sebastian Vettel, where he began taking race wins away from the world champion. But the arrival of a quickly dominating Max Verstappen led Ricciardo to jump to Renault and then McLaren. He began to slide down the championship standings. In Formula 1, there’s always a younger generation that’s ready to take the chances the veterans have learned to avoid. A driver from another time, Ricciardo became known as the last of the dive bombers. The daring move where a driver cuts to the inside on a turn and hits the brakes later than those ahead became his signature maneuver. 

On Friday, Ricciardo steps into the cockpit of his VCARB 01 much like any other day. The only visible difference from this free practice session to the others is his crash helmet. While design changes are standard these days, this one is special. The carbon fiber shell is covered in a melange of references: statements like ‘FEA’ and ‘not without a fight’; an outline of the Monza circuit, which McLaren CEO Zak Brown got tattooed on his arm after Ricciardo’s 2021 victory; and a Michael Jordan Jumpman-like silhouette of Ricciardo with arms outstretched taken from his infamous dive into the pool after his 2018 win at Monaco.

At the sprint race, Ricciardo starts in eighth after an inspired qualifying performance. He gains two places with a good jump off the start line and one more when an engine issue for Fernando Alonso results in a DNF. Ricciardo finishes fifth.

Ricciardo’s grand prix qualifying doesn’t quite match up to his sprint sessions, missing the third round by four hundredths of a second. But starting in P11 still affords the opportunity for a points finish, which are awarded to the top 10 places.

The seas of Ferrari scarlett and Red Bull blue that typically fill the stands are diluted by discordant accents of yellow and orange. The colors of Ricciardo’s 14-year history adorn his supporters, who carry hand-sketched signs of thanks and slurp beer from shoes in homage to the man of honor. 

As the clock hits 3 p.m., the five lights extinguish and Lando Norris leads the pack of twenty drivers up the steep hill to Turn 1. The 3,200-square-foot stars and stripes and a tight left hand corner greet them at the peak. Ricciardo gets another good jump off the line and quickly puts Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg behind him. Hulkenberg tries to regain the place on the esses of Turns 3-5, but Ricciardo’s number 3 car refuses to give up an apex as the German driver heads off track and quits the fight to retain 11th place. As the cars settle into their DRS trains, Ricciardo finds himself in the final points-scoring position. “10 RIC” reads the timing tower at the end of the pit lane. 

A successful undercut set him ahead of George Russell after the British driver’s shaky pitstop. “9 RIC.” Ahead of him, Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton have been scrapping over seventh and eighth place. He tucks in behind them, taking the DRS and conserving his tires. Pérez’s “Minister of Defense” persona that many thought was relegated to the past has returned in force as Hamilton looks for any opportunity to overtake. 

At the end of a lap at the Circuit of The Americas, drivers are kept honest with the final turn’s tight chicane before they start upshifting down the start/finish straight. Hamilton and Pérez get too close for comfort at the turn, leaving Pérez with a puncture. Ricciardo accelerates past Pérez on the straight as the Red Bull hobbles on the long journey back to the pitlane. “8 RIC.”

Hamilton loses momentum in the scuffle but the seven-time world champion seems invigorated after winning the battle with Pérez. Ricciardo isn’t giving an inch with three laps to go.

The final laps of the race always coincide with golden hour at the Circuit of The Americas. The sun that spent all day scorching the 150,000 fans now sits low and heavy in the sky. It bathes the circuit in a golden glow and stretches shadows across the track. 

Hamilton’s aggressive campaign has eaten away at his medium compound tires. Before beginning his final lap, he locks up on the very same curve where he took the place from Pérez’s Red Bull, slashing his lead to a half second.

As they cross the start/finish line for the final lap, Ricciardo charges with the DRS flap on his rear wing wide open. Heading up that incline to Turn 1, Hamilton positions his car for a speedy exit out of the tight corner. Ricciardo has no intention of following suit. If he’s going to take the place, he’s doing it here. 

While Hamilton starts braking, Ricciardo juts out to the inside of the track at a speed that would demand an unconscionable turn at the already difficult corner. Just as it looks like the two cars will collide, the white and blue front wing of Ricciado’s car wedges in front of the black and turquoise nose of the Mercedes. “7 RIC.”

A deafening roar erupts from the sold-out crowd like Springsteen starting Born to Run. Ricciardo’s dive bomb is the Honey Badger playing his greatest hit. Hamilton doesn’t let the place go lightly. As they pass each turn of COTA for the final time, the Mercedes falls no further than a second behind. 

Heading out of the final chicane, Hamilton positions his car parallel to Ricciardo. The last meters turn into a drag race to the checkered flag, both turbo-charged engines at full-throttle. The nose of Hamilton’s car inches up alongside Ricciardo’s but the Aussie cracks the finish line by a few hundredths of a second. “7 RIC.”

As the drivers set off on their cool down lap, a sonic version of “The Wave” follows Ricciardo around the circuit. Regardless of their allegiance, every fan cheers a bit more when Ricciardo rolls by. 

As the other cars file back into the pitlane, Ricciardo positions his car on the start/finish line. He spins his car around, creating a cloud of white smoke as the main grandstand cheers him on. The warm light of the late afternoon makes its way through the dense cloud as Ricciardo emerges. He holds one hand up and another on his heart as he looks around and mouths “thank you.” His cheeky instincts, usually backed up by his signature smirk, are no match for the emotional weight of the moment. His eyes quiver as they struggle to control their floodgates. 

Attention turns to Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc who stand atop the podium. The winners’ national anthems are played, trophies awarded, and champagne sprayed to the dancing strings and smashing cymbals of the Toreador March. 

In the media pen, Ricciardo offers his thoughts on the moment as best he can articulate them. “It’s hard to look back on the moment when you’re still in it,” he tells Sky Sports. “It kind of feels like the last day of school. It’s just a lot right now and I’ll have plenty of time to reflect on it all but right now I’m still in it and I’m going to hold onto it for as long as I can.”

From behind him, his former teammate Lando Norris appears with his first place magnum of champagne and pours some into a shoe. The drivers and press in the media pen turn their attention and chant “drink! drink! drink! drink!” as Ricciardo plays another one of his hits and chugs from a boot like he did as a grand prix winner.

As the teams pack up their traveling circus for their next stop in Mexico City, Ricciardo makes the rounds throughout the paddock. He collects well wishes and appreciation for hours, savoring the twilight of his Formula 1 career. After all the other drivers have left, Ricciardo climbs into the saddle of the steed that has its own Paddock Pass draped around its enormous neck. With the sun already set, Ricciardo rides off into the night. Press photographers and anyone else with a camera all set up behind him, snapping shots as he saunters back up the thoroughfare.

He never looks back.