The 35-year-old’s contract with the Woking outfit was terminated one year earlier than planned, leading to him returning to the Red Bull fold as a reserve driver in 2023 – before he was then drafted in to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri midway through the season.
Now, off the back of another tough run, Ricciardo’s time in Formula 1 looks to be over for the time being at least, with his seat at RB being given to Liam Lawson for the remainder of 2024.
F1 NATION: The inside story on Ricciardo’s departure and Lawson’s return – with Christian Horner
Given the challenges that the past few years have posed, Ricciardo was asked during a post-race chat with Sky Sports F1 in Singapore if he had any regrets about leaving Red Bull back in 2018.
“I can certainly look back on it and say, ‘okay’… I think at the time obviously in my head everything made sense, but was it the best decision of my career? Of course you could argue, ‘no it wasn’t’.”
