Ricciardo not treating McLaren farewell as final goodbye

Daniel Ricciardo may be embarking on his final race for McLaren this weekend, but the popular Australian is not treating the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as his F1 farewell.

Ricciardo has been bringing the F1 paddock to life since his debut at Silverstone in 2011 for HRT, and has collected eight wins, 32 podiums and three pole positions in the 231 races since.

The scenes of the “Honey Badger” bellyflopping into the pool following his against-the-odds Monaco win in 2018, performing shoeys on the podium after fending off Max Verstappen at Malaysia two years earlier are some of the happiest memories in recent times.

However, these scenes may not be replicated again as his 232nd start at Yas Marina this weekend could be his last with no future race seat looking likely despite being the only driver to win for McLaren in the last decade.

The team at McLaren’s Woking base farewell Ricciardo, proudly displaying the teams only F1 winners trophy from monza, its first since Jenson Button’s 2012 win in Brazil. Image: McLaren Facebook

Even though his dream of racing at the highest level appears distant, Ricciardo is entering the race with his trademark smile and is not treating his departure from papaya as his F1 farewell.

“I feel good,” he said in last night’s press conference.

“Mentally, I’m not treating it like it’s going to be my last ever race, but it could be. 

“Like, I know that nothing’s guaranteed in the future, so I’m going out to enjoy it, I’m not going to get too emotional about it, the thought of if it’s the last one or not, but I do want to enjoy it and take it for what it is.”

Even during the height of his Red Bull days, Yas Marina was one of the few tracks Ricciardo could never quite reach the heights of the podium.

He is entering the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the back foot after being handed a three-place grid penalty for the “brutal” first-lap incident with Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen.

Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen clash on lap 1 of the Brazilian GP, which will send Ricciardo a further three grid spots down the order for this last race with McLaren. Image: Motorsport Images

But Ricciardo is not letting the penalty get him down, saying it only adds extra motivation to perform as he hopes to show similar progress to the 2018 Australian Grand Prix when he rose from P8 to P4 after being forced to the drop the same amount of grid spots.

“I’ve got a grid penalty – I normally go better when I have penalties. I actually asked for a five-place penalty but three will do, so there we go,” he said.

Following the news of Nico Hulkenberg’s comeback to replace Mick Schumacher at Haas F1 Team, there are effectively no race seats available for Ricciardo with the Williams vacancy likely to be filled by American Logan Sergeant if he acquires an F1 Super Licence at the end of the Formula 2 season.

The Australian has been forced to look at reserve driver roles which has kept the F1 paddock in a spin as to exactly where he will end up with the possibility of supporting a top team such as Mercedes, Red Bull or even McLaren strong.

Ahead of his McLaren swan-song, Ricciardo was still noncommittal, but revealed there has been progress fuelling hope his smile will not disappear from F1 forever.

 “Still nothing’s confirmed… but progress is being made,” he said. 

“So we’ll see; hopefully you can see my good looks again next year to some degree.”

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