Two of the most popular drivers in Formula One had contrasting race weekends in Singapore. Lando Norris delivered a dominant race victory to complete his evolution to World Champion status. Meanwhile, Sunday likely was the last race of Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula One career.
Since he came into Formula One with McLaren in 2019, Lando Norris has always been seen as a fun and easy-going personality who is everyone’s friend and every fan’s favorite driver. Yet, up until the start of the 2024 Formula One season, there were doubts about whether he had the ruthless streak to turn potential into true greatness.
Despite 13 podium position finishes, Norris had failed to claim a Formula One race win. However, since his maiden Grand Prix victory at the Miami Grand Prix in May, he has consistently shown that he has everything a racing driver needs to be a World Champion.
Norris dominated last weekend’s Formula One weekend, including Sunday’s race. He finished 20+ seconds ahead of his World Champion rival, Max Verstappen. His performance was reminiscent of how Verstappen has dominated Formula One over the past two seasons.
As Lando Norris grows his Formula One career, former teammate Daniel Ricciardo has almost certainly raced in his last Formula One Grand Prix. While not yet announced officially, there is an expectation that Liam Lawson Ricciardo will replace Ricciardo for the season’s final six races, with Lawson then taking Ricciardo’s race seat at the RB team permanently in 2025.
Ricciardo has been a fun personality in the Formula One paddock–extremely popular among the drivers and a fan favorite throughout his career. Formula One will fondly remember him even though his legacy is likely to be that of a driver with unfulfilled potential.
Ricciardo rose to prominence in Formula One when he joined the Red Bull Racing team in 2014. During this season, his racing ability first shone as he won three Formula One Grand Prix and finished 3rd in the Drivers World Championship, besting his four-time World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel. Unfortunately for Ricciardo, his World Champion potential was never fulfilled, and he ended his career as an eight-time Grand Prix winner over 257 race starts.
Since leaving Red Bull Racing in 2019 to join the Renault F1 team, Ricciardo has struggled to replicate his early career performances. Apart from two podium positions during the 2020 season and a fantastic surprise victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, Riccardo has spent most of his Formula One Grand races down at the lower end of the grid. For a driver who outperformed a multiple World Champion teammate in Sebastian Vettel and mostly matched Max Verstappen when he first joined the Red Bull team, it has been a disappointing way for the hugely popular Ricciardo to bow out of Formula One.
While Lando Norris and Daniel Riccardo are two of the most popular characters in Formula One, their current circumstances could not be more different. Lando Norris may be the current star of Formula One; however, he only needs to look at his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s plight to see how ruthless top-level sport can be.
If there is anything Norris and all other drivers can take from Riccardo’s sad exit from Formula One, they must make the most of every opportunity. Fortunes can quickly turn and without sympathy if and when they do.
