MELBOURNE, Australia -- There was a calmness about Daniel Ricciardo as he drove The Athletic around the streets of Melbourne, en route to Calder Park Raceway.
As he pulled the blue Ford Ranger Raptor out from behind the building housing his Enchanté pop-up shop, the Australian rolled down his window and greeted several fans waiting. He signed autographs and took photos, the smile evident in his voice.
Ricciardo knew the end of his F1 career was near in 2024. F1 may have had six races remaining in the season, but Racing Bulls replaced the veteran with Liam Lawson following the Singapore Grand Prix in late September. He never managed to secure a world championship during his 14-year F1 career. Still, he became a new kind of F1 star over the years, bringing authenticity and humanity to the paddock and starring on Netflix's "Drive to Survive."
And yet, his exit was awkward and quiet, with Ricciardo disappearing from the spotlight and falling into the shadows. His 2024 season was defined by a consistency problem that neither he nor the team could solve: a P4 in the Miami Sprint, a P5 qualifying in Canada, and then long stretches of anonymity.
He had prepared for when the curtain would fall, telling The Athletic that he thought all would be OK when the end came because he had good friends and hobbies. The sport moved on, and he was left to grapple with the sadness and sudden change in life.
"When you wake up with really one purpose for so many years, even if it feels like the right time, necessarily," Ricciardo, now 36, said to The Athletic, "it doesn't really change the fact that, 'Oh, it's gone, and what do I do now?'"
Ricciardo eventually pulled away from the small group of fans and headed toward the main road, driving past the long line that extended past several storefronts with fans waiting to enter his lifestyle brand's pop-up. He eased into the drive, properly using his blinker when changing lanes and becoming more relaxed behind the steering wheel as he took a hand off from time to time.
As the drive wore on, his demeanor shifted. He discussed the last year and a half, laughed at times and cracked jokes before his voice got quieter and more thoughtful.
It was a multi-month journey to reach this point. Looking back, Ricciardo feels he likely was in denial that his F1 chapter was over for those first few months, going about his life as normal -- "Happy-go-lucky, and everything's fine and everything's roses."
It took another six months for him to settle into what his current chapter looks like, though it's a work in progress and focused in part on being normal. After some soul-searching, Ricciardo began to figure out what that word meant in his life. The F1 world is anything but normal. And as the sport grew near the last few years of his career, so did the media and marketing commitments.
"So much of my life was events and trackside, and there's always a camera around. There's always people, and I have to put on always a smile and have to be careful what I say and this and that," Ricciardo explained when sharing that his current purpose is finding normality. "I tried to obviously always come across authentic and as myself but it's impossible to be 100 percent that when there is just always eyes on you."
One of the ways Ricciardo unplugged and tried to find his new normal was working on his family's farm. It became an escape for him as he helped with various hands-on tasks, such as repairing the cows' water troughs or operating a roller or water truck. A roller is essentially a tool used to break up soil and flatten the land, and he described driving it as "pretty boring, but it’s kind of nice," given he's able to contribute to the farm. He'd drive it for six hours at a time and listen to music while falling into the rhythm of the task.
"I would say probably my biggest takeaway from last year is the importance of alone time because I realized that my life was always surrounded by people and chaos so to speak that I kind of lost my own thoughts and ideas and I never really had a chance to probably make a decision on my own and I would easily get convinced that something's the right thing to do or this or that because I always have kind of voices around me," Ricciardo explained, his voice a bit deeper as if he was lost in thought.
He pointed out that he didn't feel those voices around him had bad intentions; rather that being alone made him realize what he wanted rather than whether outside opinions skewed a decision.
"Alone time, I think, for everyone is important. It also just makes you see, like, 'OK, where am I at with life? What am I chasing? Is that the right thing to be chasing? What do I want? What do I value?' You can't really ever ask yourself those questions if you're constantly surrounded by groups of people and everything's like fun, fun, fun. That's not also real life which I've started to realize."
Ricciardo found himself needing to learn how to trust his gut instinct again. As he pointed out, sometimes you may second-guess yourself when you're making what you feel is the right choice, but others disagree. It can be an internal battle. One of the first big decisions he had to make on his own in this new chapter of his life was whether to be in the F1 world.
He felt he needed to disappear for a while considering he was hurt and "wasn't really sure how I felt about it as a whole." What he needed was time, Ricciardo said, but some people in his circle shared concerns about how "you don't want to hide for too long because then you'll quickly be forgotten and maybe then everything you build kind of goes away." He did clarify that it wasn't as strategic as it sounded but he ultimately needed to find his happiness and purpose again.
"I just had to try and push back on that stuff because I didn't feel like that was right or what I wanted. And I know jumping into commentating or something is not what I want to do," he explained. "So just doing something to do it and stay in people spaces is just personally not my journey, not what I'm chasing."
Ultimately, at this point in his life, he doesn't feel doing commentary will fulfill him, but he'll never say never. There is also the travel component of the job which he doesn't seem keen to dive into again (beyond traveling for fun) as he's been working to reregulate his body. Getting into a normal sleep cycle and sleeping well took months given the years of international travel and time zone hopping.
Being part of the F1 world may have its perks but there is a taxing element to it.
"I was always pretty good at putting on a brave face and letting people know that I was good and happy and everything's fine. But when everything quieted down—and let’s say—the lights were turned off; I was like: ‘OK; I need to do some soul searching and make sure that I’m good with all this.’"
"Jumping back into something as well and having another distraction was not going to help me figure out who I was."
Ricciardo says he "chose distractions" to avoid grappling with the end of his career. But when he realized this wasn't helping, he took to the road.
Over the last several months, he's reconnected with old friends and made sure they, plus his family, continue playing a role in this next chapter of his life. But he also needed to factor in "how do I make sure they continue to play a role, and I don't just do something for 11 months a year again that takes me away from them too much."
His lifestyle brand, Enchanté, is one of the projects he's continued working on; occasionally popping over to New York City offices still releasing new collections. But another project is bit closer motorsport -- becoming global ambassador Ford Racing.
Ricciardo navigated a range of emotions including sadness resentment when his F1 career ended; but as those feelings diminished he realized still enjoyed racing cars. Ford Racing provided him with an avenue stay connected this part previous life. The relationship between two started in 2023 before Ricciardo's F1 career ended; Ricciardo has owned off-road pickup several years. So he started considering working Ford Racing could look like; idea being part Raptor brand came up.
"It still keeps me linked to the automotive world but I'm not just a poster boy for F1," Ricciardo said explaining how he processed it. "I can kind of do my own thing but stay in that space."
He's attended a few different events while in this role; it's helping him "get to a place where I enjoy getting behind a wheel again; that doesn't have to be racing; it doesn't have to be on a stage with a stopwatch; it's given me some of that."
Ricciardo says this journey with Ford Racing is helping him heal his love for cars and motorsports. He's gone from being driven by the stopwatch and trying to be better than others to simply driving around and having fun.
What he's not ready for though is the competition. He's not saying never to racing but he recognizes that it would come with baggage given his career to date. People will likely expect him to win and disappointment would come if he didn't. For now he's liking driving for "fun reasons and nothing else."
The truth is Ricciardo is still figuring everything out. But the peace is evident even when he's back behind the wheel. Ricciardo drove The Athletic to Calder Park Raceway where Ford Australia hosted a media and content creator event featuring ride-alongs with Ricciardo in the Raptor T1+.
Watching from the side of the track you could hear Ricciardo’s laughter before you saw his smile. He fell into deep concentration as he drove off-road; his mouth sometimes dropping open -- but every once in a while; he’d throw a thumbs up; his smile reaching his eyes.
(It) took me a while to figure it out after racing; probably who I was and what maybe my purpose was beyond just being a race car driver,” he said a few hours earlier while driving around the Melbourne streets. “So I’d say I’m much closer to being comfortable with that.
“I sit here just more relaxed; and the thought of going back into a chaotic sort of lifestyle terrifies me; to be honest.”