Ricciardo 'enjoying life in the slow lane' as he shares update on post-F1 plans

Daniel Ricciardo has given an update on his situation following his exit from the F1 grid in 2024, with the Australian admitting that he is “enjoying some life in the slow lane” several months on from his last race.

Ricciardo faced a tumultuous few years in the sport in recent times, having been left without a seat entering into 2023 when a difficult spell at McLaren resulted in the mutual decision to terminate his contract early at the end of 2022.

He then returned to the Red Bull stable as a reserve driver before being drafted in to replace Nyck de Vries at the then-named AlphaTauri squad – now known as Racing Bulls – midway through 2023.

While he remained with the outfit into 2024, the driver from Perth struggled to return to his form of old and was replaced by Liam Lawson for the remainder of the campaign following the Singapore Grand Prix.

Ricciardo – who turns 36 today – has not raced since then but has continued to be involved in supporting youngsters in motorsport through the Daniel Ricciardo Series, in which young drivers compete at the wheel of a DRS Ricciardo Kart across events held in the United Kingdom.

The eight-time race winner was in attendance during the latest round at Buckmore Park over the weekend and, when quizzed on how he is getting on at the moment, gave a positive response as he reflected on how his current venture reminds him of his early racing days.

“All good!” said Ricciardo. “I’m just enjoying some life in the slow lane. I mean, it sounds weird saying like retirement when I’m 35 years old, but retirement from at least the world I was living in. It’s cool.

“To be at the kart track… it’s my first time at a race track since I guess Singapore, so quite a few months now. But it’s cool to see the kids… this is why I started karting…

“I’ve had photos with groups of the kids and I can tell the friendships they have, and these friendships will last a lifetime a lot of them. My best friend to this day was a friend that I raced karts with. It’s nice to be back at like the grassroots of it and the most pure form of racing.”

With young karters at the track keen to meet Ricciardo, the former Red Bull driver admitted that he has been able to appreciate what it felt like as a youngster in the sport since taking some time away.

“I think now that I’m a bit removed from it and life is not as chaotic, it’s nice to remember what it was like to be at the start of the career,” he explained. “We all have idols and heroes…

“I would be very nervous meeting someone who I admired, so I understand sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming. But everyone seems pretty cool. I guess maybe I’m not the only driver they’ve met before – there’s a lot of F1 fans here!

“I think just to have someone that you want to try and obviously look up to and someone that can inspire you… if I’m able to sprinkle a tiny bit of inspiration or motivation today by being here and having a chat to a few kids, that’s awesome. That’s something I know I appreciated when I was eight, nine, 10 years old.”

Ricciardo also took a moment to reflect on the one piece of advice that he wished he had received when he was the age of those now in karting.

“I mean, I think I was quite lucky with the advice,” the Australian conceded. "It was always just, ‘Go and have fun’. It wasn’t about trying to impress someone or be someone you’re not. ‘If you do this you’ll be on TV and make money’. It wasn’t about that, it was just, ‘Go and have fun’.

“It kind of helped me also… like racing is scary, you know? I think it helped me at school have a bit more confidence. Everyone’s shy, we all go through things growing up, so I think it kind of gave me confidence in myself as a person, also away from the track. So, that’s something I took from it.

“But as far as the driving goes, honestly it was just about me having fun. I was playing with my friends [at the track], we were riding scooters and stuff, and my dad was always dragging me like, ‘The kart’s on the grid, put your helmet on!’ The karting was kind of secondary a lot of the time. It was just to be in this environment with friends.”