\n<\/p>\n
Ricciardo\u2019s jovial character and sense of humour has made him one of F1’s most popular characters throughout his 13-year career.<\/p>\n
And for seven seasons, from 2014 to 2020 inclusive, he was considered one of the sport’s leading drivers.<\/p>\n
He was promoted to the Red Bull team from the junior outfit in 2014 and outperformed four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in his first season, scoring three wins to the German’s none.<\/p>\n
They were the first of seven impressive wins in his five years at Red Bull, at a time when Mercedes were dominating the sport, many of them thanks to swashbuckling late-dive overtaking manoeuvres. These became a Ricciardo trademark.<\/p>\n
But Ricciardo’s career began to go into decline after he decided to leave Red Bull at the end of 2018.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo felt that the team was coalescing around his team-mate Max Verstappen, who was promoted from the junior team in 2016 and won on his debut in Spain.<\/p>\n
Verstappen gradually imposed his superiority over Ricciardo, who felt there was no way for him to reverse the trend as management increasingly leant towards the Dutchman.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo decided to take a lucrative offer from Renault, who paid him $55m over two seasons in 2019-20, hoping he could build a future with the French team.<\/p>\n
His performances remained strong, and he outperformed his first team-mate Nico Hulkenberg over 2019 and then Esteban Ocon in 2020, before moving to McLaren for 2021.<\/p>\n
That switch was the beginning of the end for Ricciardo. Although he took his final victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, he was outperformed by team-mate Lando Norris through the season.<\/p>\n
And when the trend continued and was enhanced in 2022, McLaren decided to drop Ricciardo in favour of fellow Australian Oscar Piastri at the end of the season, a year before his contract was due to expire.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo was given a lifeline by Red Bull, who made him their reserve driver for 2023, and then promoted him to a race seat at their second team midway through last season as a replacement for Dutchman Nyck de Vries.<\/p>\n
At the time, Red Bull\u2019s thinking was that Ricciardo could be a potential replacement for Sergio Perez as Verstappen\u2019s team-mate in the main team.<\/p>\n
But on balance Ricciardo has been outperformed by Tsunoda, and his performances have ruled him out of contention for a return to Red Bull.<\/p>\n
His final hurrah was to help out Verstappen by securing the fastest lap of the race at last weekend\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix, denying the Dutchman’s title rival Lando Norris an extra point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n