David Coulthard makes ‘he chose not to’ claim in Red Bull backlash over Daniel Ricciardo exit

Informed before the Singapore Grand Prix that it was to be his final race with VCARB, Daniel Ricciardo is believed to have had the choice to make the news public but decided against it.

That’s according to former F1 driver David Coulthard, who wonders if it was a personal choice to avoid being distracted on the weekend or a moment of media genius from the Honey Badger.

David Coulthard claims Daniel Ricciardo ‘chose not to’ announce his departure

Red Bull came in for some stick on social media as fans condemned the organisation for not giving Ricciardo the send-off that he “deserved” by delaying confirmation of his exit until four days after Singapore.

Claiming Red Bull had done the “dirty” on the Aussie, fans called the manner in which he was dropped “embarrassing”, “shocking” and “one of the worst things I have witnessed in watching Formula One for over 60 years”.

But according to former Red Bull driver Coulthard, it was Ricciardo who didn’t want the news known.

Speaking on the latest Formula For Success podcast the Scot said: “One thing that’s interesting – rumour, rather than I’ve seen it with my own eyes – was that he actually knew from a few races back that it would be finishing in Singapore.

“He had the opportunity, obviously, to make that public and he chose not to.”

Pondering why Ricciardo made that call, whether it was to avoid being distracted or a stroke of media genius, Coulthard reflected on his retirement announcement at the 2008 British Grand Prix, calling it a “very nice opportunity” to “round out with family and friends who have been supportive”.

He continued: “I know there’s been a lot of reaction negatively people going, ‘why was he not given that that opportunity?’ But I heard that he was given that opportunity and chose not to.

Daniel Ricciardo adds his name to Red Bull’s mid-season exits

👉 What happened to Daniel Ricciardo? The compelling theories to explain his sharp F1 decline

👉 All the mid-season driver swaps Red Bull have made in their F1 history

“So I’m trying to kind of figure that out in my head, whether that’s just a personal thing, didn’t want to be distracted by that, or whether that’s some sort of media master stroke, which will just gain even more mileage when I imagine he will, or should, turn up in Austin and Vegas – he’s big in America – two great opportunities for him to get a lot of air time and make it all about him, where maybe it would have been mixed into a Grand Prix weekend in Singapore.”

He put that to his guest on the podcast, Alex Jacques, the commentator saying it may have been that Ricciardo wasn’t willing until that very last moment to accept that it was over.

“I think there could be a couple of things going on there,” Jacques replied to Coulthard. “Number one, you [Coulthard] seem very at peace when your time came. I think Daniel Ricciardo… going mid-season is not in not how anyone wants to go. So there could have been a smidge of denial there.

“There could also have been an element of that car traditionally has been really decent around Singapore. And I think there might have been an element of this has been up in the air for so long – they’ve got one person with a vote saying one thing, they’ve got another person with a vote saying another thing.

“I wonder if he just felt that say an amazing drive, like a really strong fifth place, which is about the ceiling of that car, if everything goes right he just felt maybe I can buy myself some more time, because his mood went off a cliff when he went out in Q1.

“Thursday Danny Ric, Friday Danny Ric, Saturday Danny Ric, he was in pain on that Saturday night, and I think that’s the moment he knew he was done.

“But I don’t think he wanted to fully give up, even though he’d been told what the plan was, because there’s some wiggle room isn’t there with the hierarchy there this year? Little bit of paralysis at different points.

“So could just be, he didn’t want to admit that he was done. Could just be that he believed that might have been like five per cent to get himself a few more races.”

Coulthard acknowledged his point, saying: “When you’re in the cockpit and you’re turning up to the Grand Prix there’s always that… Well, I know from my own personal experience, you reset ahead of every race, ahead of every Grand Prix, and there’s a belief that it’s opportunity – every race is an opportunity for something positive to happen.”

Read next: Helmut Marko’s ruthless Daniel Ricciardo verdict with more exit reasons shared