Daniel Ricciardo drops retirement detail in photo amid speculation over future following F1 axing

Daniel Ricciardo's future has been a hot topic since Red Bull axed him following last month's Singapore Grand Prix. The Aussie driver doesn't have a contract with any team for 2025 and at 35, many feel that his time in the sport is over.

And Ricciardo has now seemingly put to bed any thought of an F1 return, in a cheeky social media post. Ricciardo's friend and motocross rider Adam Cianciarulo uploaded a story on Instagram on Tuesday of Ricciardo, himself and another friend, with the former Red Bull driver wearing a cap that had a clear message on it. It read: "I’m retired – having a good time is my job."

The post comes after the charismatic driver's F1 career came to an end last month after 14 years of driving for Red Bull, HRT, McLaren and Renault. The Aussie became one of the most popular drivers in F1 over the years but two years of consistently poor results saw him shown the door, replaced by young Kiwi Liam Lawson for the remainder of the 2024 F1 season.

And Ricciardo appears to have closed the door on returning to the sport, with no realistically feasible opportunities at any leading teams available. After his final race in Singapore Ricciardo admitted he hadn't done enough to earn a seat for next year and stated that he didn’t wish to stretch his career out and hold up a seat in F1. "I always said I don’t want to come back just to be on the grid; I want to try and fight back at the front and get back at Red Bull. Obviously, it didn’t come to fruition," he said.

Nevertheless, Ricciardo has plenty of other opportunities he can pursue outside of being an F1 driver. His charismatic and charming personality could be an ideal fit for media and broadcasting. While as far as racing goes, the Aussie could look at other racing disciplines such as the Supercars in Australia or IndyCar and NASCAR in the US.

Supercars officials have already put their feelers out to see if the 35-year-old would be interested in a career switch, with Supercars chief Shane Howard revealing they are very interested in bringing him in.

"Wouldn't that be fantastic? To have someone of Daniel Ricciardo's quality as a driver," Howard said last week. "He's got an enormous personality. To have him in one of our cars would be very special. We've got an open invite to Daniel... We would certainly like to have him in one of our cars, 100 per cent we would."

Liam Lawson reveals he was promised an F1 seat last year

Ricciardo's Red Bull successor, Lawson, revealed he has known since last year that there was a good chance he would take the Aussie driver's place in the VCARB team. Speaking ahead of the United States Grand Prix, the young Kiwi admitted he knew it was coming as he was promised a spot in the team at some point in 2024 last year. "I knew it was temporary last year. That was about trying to give myself a shot full-time at getting a seat. And now I’ve got it." Lawson told the F1 Nation podcast.

"The idea of me jumping in is something that Christian told me a year ago. And when I stepped out of the car, that was one of the things he said to me is that, he said, ‘I give you my word, I’ll basically have you in a race seat at some point next year’. So I always knew that was the intention. And it’d been talked about.

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“But I mean, Formula One is a rollercoaster and every weekend things change. So one minute it looks really good and then it doesn’t look good. And it’s all depending on how the guys are actually going. And it’s a bit horrible to be honest because you’re kind of sitting there wondering what your chances are of driving it, and it completely depends on how the guys that are currently driving are doing. And you don’t obviously want somebody’s downfall to be your way in.

“But if it’s for me to drive, somebody has to leave, obviously. So there was no clear route of where that was going to be though. So it wasn’t like, in 12 months, you’re going to switch with this person. It was in 12 months, ‘we’re going to have you a seat, but we just don’t know where yet’."