Daniel Ricciardo ‘cocky’ admission as dropped Red Bull driver recalls Austin reality check

Daniel Ricciardo recalled how a close friend sat him down in his Red Bull days to warn him to check his ego, as his F1 success got to his head.

After two seasons with junior team Toro Rosso, Ricciardo graduated to the main Red Bull team in 2014, where that season he claimed the distinction of being the only non-Mercedes race winner, taking three of them in Canada, Hungary and Belgium, as well as defeating Red Bull’s reigning four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel on the other side of the garage.

‘Cocky’ Daniel Ricciardo told straight in Austin 2015

However, Ricciardo admitted that from here he started to get “a little weird” as the success went to his head, leading to a close friend telling him straight in 2015 in Austin, home of the United States Grand Prix.

Ricciardo went on to claim four further victories with Red Bull, leaving the team after 2018 and returning to the fold in 2023. But, the fairy tale Red Bull comeback story has not happened, Ricciardo having been dropped from Red Bull junior team VCARB after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, confirming his Formula 1 exit.

PlanetF1.com understands that the door has been left ajar for Ricciardo to remain in the Red Bull Racing pool, but that is his decision to make.

Asked on the Red Flags podcast if he could recall a time when he was put into check by a friend, Ricciardo replied: “Yeah, 2015. It was actually in Austin.

“So yeah, it was probably when I just started to like, make a bit of a name for myself in the sport and won a few races. And yeah, I was my mid 20s, and you think you’re, I don’t want to go as far as saying you think you’re invincible, but you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m really kicking it right now. I’m the man’.

“And yeah, I remember I was like, probably just getting a little weird, in terms of just getting like ahead of myself and probably a bit cocky, maybe.

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“And someone close to me at the time, I remember they’re like, ‘I’ve seen a change in the last few weeks and just, I don’t like it and I just want you to be aware of it because I don’t think it’s your true self. So just make sure this doesn’t take over and you start affecting people around you. But it’s affected me a bit.

“‘So, as a close friend, I want to be honest with you and tell you that, yeah, I don’t want you to go and like not see what I’m seeing.’

“It was like, yeah, it was quite heavy. Because you go on through life sometimes and you don’t realise like, I don’t know, if you’re just heads down and you’re just looking ahead.

“I respect… He’s still a close friend of mine and I respected him and I then took a good look and I was like, ‘Yeah, I need to just keep my feet on the ground a little bit.'”

Ricciardo departs Formula 1 as an eight-time grand prix winner, having claimed his final win with McLaren at Monza in 2021. His F1 2024 seat at VCARB has been taken by Liam Lawson, as he bids to secure a place on the F1 2025 grid.

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