Daniel Ricciardo fired by RB F1 team, replaced by Liam Lawson

• Red Bull Racing feeder team RB has dropped Daniel Ricciardo
• Liam Lawson will race with RB for the rest of the season
• Lawson could also be promoted to Red Bull if he manages to outperform current RB driver Yuki Tsunoda

Daniel Ricciardo has been dropped by the RB Formula 1 team, potentially marking the top of his F1 profession.

The Red Bull Racing feeder team announced on Thursday that Liam Lawson will replace Ricciardo for the rest of the 2024 season.

The news is not an enormous surprise as Ricciardo hinted finally weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix that the race is likely to be the last time he hops in an F1 automobile in a competitive setting.

Lawson has been a part of Red Bull’s driver development program since 2019 and served as a reserve driver since 2022. He has already participated in five F1 races, all of them in 2023 when he sat in for an injured Ricciardo at AlphaTauri, the team that was rebranded RB in 2024.

Lawson drove impressively in those five races, even managing to complete within the points at that season’s Singapore Grand Prix by running ninth. Should he manage to outshine RB’s other driver, Yuki Tsunoda, this season, there is a likelihood he’ll eventually be promoted to the Red Bull team as a alternative for Sergio Perez, who has been bogged down throughout many of the current season.

Ricciardo has enjoyed eight wins in his F1 profession, most of them earned at Red Bull. He made his debut midway through the 2011 season, with former team Hispania Racing, because the alternative for Narain Karthikeyan. He joined Toro Rosso the following season, the team that might later turn out to be AlphaTauri and is today RB. Over the following couple of years, he impressed enough to achieve a seat at Red Bull in 2013, because the alternative for Mark Webber and teammate for Sebastian Vettel.

Ricciardo eventually joined Renault in 2019 after which McLaren in 2021. He was dropped from McLaren midway through 2022, after which he rejoined Red Bull as a test driver in late 2022 in an effort to regain a seat. He was then signed to RB midway through the 2023 season after the team dropped rookie Nyck de Vries. Nevertheless, he missed many of the remainder of the 2023 season as a consequence of wrist injury sustained during a rehearsal for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Ricciardo is one among the strongest personalities in F1 and optimistically will remain as a presenter.