Daniel Ricciardo accused of losing “need to succeed” after Red Bull F1 exit

Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career tailed off because he lost the “need to succeed” after leaving Red Bull, believes former grand prix winner David Coulthard.

Ricciardo’s decline in performance following his high-profile move to Renault has been one of the biggest mysteries of F1 in recent years, as he failed to rediscover the form that made him one of the most promising drivers of his age.

Ricciardo scored seven wins during his time at Red Bull and gained a strong fan following for his charisma and exceptional overtaking skills, but he added just one more victory and two further podiums to his tally in his remaining 107 starts in F1.

David Coulthard explains Daniel Ricciardo F1 decline

Coulthard, who has followed Ricciardo’s career closely as a Red Bull ambassador, believes the Australian’s early success ultimately hurt the longevity of his F1 career.

“You evolve as life goes on and you see some drivers who evolve well. You see others that get affected by the success and that affects their trajectory,” Coulthard said on the High Performance podcast.

“Daniel Ricciardo will be an example of that. One of the bright young talents who arrived in F1, one of the best overtakers of his generation, always exciting to watch. 

“Just suddenly when he left Red Bull, Renault was okayish, and at McLaren, Lando outperformed him both years even though Daniel won a race. 

“And then it never really worked out again at AlphaTauri. Now he is happily retired, I assume, [as] a wealthy individual. But it all felt like it was condensed into too short a period.”

Pressed on why Ricciardo struggled later in his career, Coulthard offered a philosophical take on why some athletes lose the will to succeed after achieving fame and wealth.

“In life you gain baggage as you go through your life,” he explained. “If you are poorer, that's a Tesco bag with a few clothes inside. If you are rich, it's a Louis Vuitton. 

“Other bags are available, but it all has to be carried. So whether it's baggage of wealth or success or whether it's baggage of poverty and difficulty, it's got to be carried to try and to get to the next opportunity. 

“For some people maybe they are not able to let go and actually take themselves back to the moment that was the freest point that saw their performance at the highest level.

“As we evolve, some people evolve into another phase of life where they don't have that need, they don't have that desire.

“Martin Brundle used the expression, ‘you don't lose the speed, you lose the need’ and I liken it to a boxer. I'm gonna imagine every boxer has been knocked down at a certain point whether that's in training or any early fight.

“When they are young, they are [looking] up and their eyes are everywhere but their need to succeed is so strong it overcomes that hurt. 

"They get a bit older and they've got wealth and success and they go down and you see them. 'Did he say five or six [during the countdown]?'. I'll just stay here a bit longer'. 'Oh, he didn't make the count. Well, I earned the money, I don't want to get punched in the head anymore’. 

"They've lost the need to take the punches."

Daniel Ricciardo’s career recalled

One of the promising talents of the early 2010s, Ricciardo made an impressive graduation to Red Bull as he outperformed four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel at the start of the V6 hybrid era.

He then gave a tough fight to Red Bull’s next prodigy Max Verstappen, and remains the only teammate to have finished ahead of the Dutchman in the championship.

However, at the end of 2018, Ricciardo took a bold decision to leave Red Bull and accept a big-money offer from Renault, despite the French manufacturer’s relative lack of competitiveness in F1.

Ricciardo would go on to score just two podiums at Renault during his two-year stint with the team, before moving sideways to a rebuilding McLaren team for 2021-22.

The Australian did help McLaren score its first victory in nine years at the 2021 Belgian GP, but that result was an outlier in an otherwise frustrating stint, and he found himself out of F1 at the end of 2022.

Red Bull gave Ricciardo a reprieve at the end of 2023 by evaluating his speed at AlphaTauri/Racing Bulls, but sacked him after the Singapore GP last year, bringing his F1 career to a close.