Nyck de Vries to AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly to Alpine, Logan Sargeant at Williams; increasingly, these are the names being mentioned to fill the remaining seats in Formula 1. One name is invariably missing: that of Daniel Ricciardo. There is no longer a place for him at McLaren and the rest of the grid does not seem to be waiting for him either.
Surely it would mark the end of an era. For years, Ricciardo was one of the fastest men in Formula 1. But since his departure from Red Bull Racing, the always smiling Australian saw his career go down the hill. At Alpine he struggled, at McLaren Ricciardo is often destroyed by Lando Norris. Apparently, this does not make Ricciardo attractive to other teams.
The end is approaching
Only Haas seems like it could be an option for Ricciardo, where Mick Schumacher is rumoured not to get a new commitment. But it seems from Ricciardo's words, meanwhile, that he has few illusions left for himself: his time in Formula 1 could just (temporarily) come to an end. "I’ve certainly accepted, if I’m not to be on the grid next year, I’m okay with that," he told Fox Sports in his native country. “I’ve accepted that I’m not going to do everything, or my [management] team’s not going to do everything, just to put me on the grid if it’s not right or it doesn’t make sense.”
Ricciardo is using the weekends off before the Singapore race to think about his future. He previously revealed he is open to a reserve role with one of the top teams.