Zafir Nagji, Sports Editor | 

Winning a championship is difficult in any sport, and even some of the greatest athletes fail to ever achieve this feat. Many players, like Charles Barkley in the NBA or Cristiano Ronaldo in FIFA World Cups, establish unforgettable legacies littered with records and awards, except for that coveted championship trophy. Daniel Ricciardo was Formula One’s version of this tragic story, and as he announced his retirement from the sport, fans of the Australian driver reminisced on just what made the eight-time race winner so spectacular to watch. 

The Honey Badger’s Backstory

After winning the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 West European Cup and the 2009 British Formula 3 championship, Ricciardo would eventually make his Formula One debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix thanks to an unexpected mid-season promotion.

Despite being contracted as a test driver for Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo began his F1 career  in an HRT. Even though he didn’t score any points, his driving earned him a full-time race seat at Scuderia Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s junior team. In two seasons with the team, Ricciardo finished in the points 13 times and scored a total of 30 points. Soon, the Australian driver was given a spot next to Sebastian Vettel, who had won the previous four world championships, at Red Bull Racing. There, Ricciardo earned his peculiar nickname, “Honey Badger,” 

Because of his playful personality and young age at the time of signing, pundits and paddock members alike refused to take him seriously and christened him with the humourous title. Ricciardo embraced the comical nickname and emulated the ferocious spirit of the tenacious beast he was nicknamed after.

“I was very aware that and I felt it in some drivers, some drivers were probably laughing at me thinking, ‘Oh, what’s Red Bull done here, got this young kid that has curly hair and just smiles and laughs a lot and he might be quick on one lap, but we’re just going to bully him in a race situation’,” Ricciardo told PlanetF1. 

“I definitely felt that and maybe I orchestrated some of it in my head as well to kind of give myself a point to prove and I think that’s where I adopted the ‘Honey Badger’ and got most awards that year in terms of like greatest overtake or whatever it was. I really felt like that was a time for me to step up I guess and to be taken a little more seriously.”

Facing the pressure of driving next to defending champion Vettel, who had already established himself as one of the most accomplished drivers in Formula One history, Ricciardo opened up his first season with the energy drink empire with a bang. After finishing second at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, the result would eventually be disqualified by the FIA when they ruled that his car exceeded the mandated hourly fuel flow rate limit. Still, the Honey Badger proved he was going to be a threat on the track every weekend.

Ricciardo wasted no time scoring his first official points for the team. He opened his tab at the Bahrain Grand Prix when he finished in P4 after starting in P13, and the Aussie brought home his first career podium finish at the Spanish Grand Prix just a few races later. At that year’s Canadian Grand Prix, Ricciardo turned a sixth-place starting position into his first-ever race win.

By the end of that season, Ricciardo racked up 238 points with eight podium finishes, outscoring Vettel by 71 points. Mercedes-AMG took home 16 race wins between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Ricciardo stole the only other three available wins in Canada, Hungary, and Belgium and finished third in the Drivers Championship. 

Vettel left for Ferrari the following year, so Red Bull decided to promote Ricciardo to lead driver and paired him with a young Daniil Kvyat. It didn’t pan out immediately for the Honey Badger, though, as Ricciardo could not muster a single win that year; the Silver Arrows won 15 of the 19 races and once again, there were only three unique race winners the entire season (Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel). 

Ricciardo’s best on-track performance in 2015 came off the grid when he appeared on Top Gear. The Aussie set the lap record during the show’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment with a lap time of one minute, 42.2 seconds, a time faster than those set by Vettel, Hamilton, and numerous other F1 legends. As he ended the 2015 season with 92 points in eighth place for the championship, Ricciardo would return with a vengeance in 2016.

Mercedes remained the dominant force to beat, taking home victories in all but two of the 21 races on the 2016 calendar. Ricciardo claimed a win in Malaysia late in the season, with his new teammate, a young Max Verstappen, securing a victory in Spain to become the youngest Formula One race winner ever. At his podium finish in Germany, the Honey Badger added a signature celebration to his legacy, drinking champagne out of his shoe and dubbing the ritual a “shoe-y.” 

Ricciardo repeated this celebration after finishing second in Belgium and persuaded podium interviewer and former race-winner Mark Webber to join him. When Ricciardo won in Malaysia, team boss Christian Horner, along with Rosberg and Verstappen, partook in the unusual but jovial celebration. Ricciardo ended the season as one of only two drivers to finish every single race of the season, joining Sergio Perez in that elite group.

Despite securing three race wins over the next two seasons, Ricciardo began to notice the team swaying in favour of his young, burgeoning teammate. Verstappen, who brought home four race victories in the same time period as Ricciardo’s three, became the focal point of the team. Red Bull Racing also ended their partnership with their engine supplier, Renault, with whom Ricciardo was extremely familiar having driven cars powered by them for the entirety of his professional motorsports career.

Faced with the prospect of racing alongside a younger, arguably faster driver in a car powered by an unfamiliar engine on a team that no longer prioritized him, the Honey Badger left for greener pastures and joined Renault’s works F1 team.

The Beginning of the End

Now paired with German wheelman Niko Hulkenberg, Ricciardo was the obvious lead driver of the team, with Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul insisting that they would go as far as the Australian driver would take them. Their first season together in 2019 did not inspire confidence, though, as the team failed to pick up a single race win. 

Meanwhile, Mercedes-AMG scored their sixth consecutive Constructors Championship behind Hamilton’s sixth Drivers Championship victory and Verstappen, now the lead driver at Red Bull Racing, took home victories in Australia, Germany and Brazil.

Ricciardo spent one more year with the French Formula One squad, but still couldn’t bring home a single victory for Renault in 2020. Mercedes-AMG and Lewis Hamilton took home their seventh Constructors and Drivers Championship victories, respectively, but Ricciardo could only settle for two podium appearances. Losing faith in the team’s ability to give him a race-winning ride, the Aussie left once again, moving back to Britain to drive for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team.

However, Ricciardo would only register one race win for the Papayas, giving McLaren their first one-two finish in 11 years at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. In a race where the two heavyweight title favourites, Verstappen and Hamilton, collided and did not finish, Ricciardo brought home his last career race win. 

Outscored by younger co-driver Lando Norris by a margin of 41 points, Ricciardo finished the 2021 season with only one podium and in 2022, he only scored points in seven of the 22 races. As a result of the Honey Badger’s decline, McLaren traded their aging Aussie for a younger one, signing 22-year-old Oscar Piastri to drive alongside Norris. 

Ricciardo spent the 2022 offseason hoping a contending team would sign him, but was not offered a race seat by any of his desired teams. He signed on as a reserve driver for the Red Bull Racing team, tasked with obtaining data through the team’s simulator and being the face of their media operations. Nyck de Vries, rookie driver for Red Bull’s junior team, now named AlphaTauri, would eventually lose his race seat to Ricciardo after a disappointing, point-less start to his 2023 season and finally, the Honey Badger was back in a racecar.

However, just as the happiness set in, the Aussie broke his hand in his third race with the team at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. Liam Lawson, yet another driver on Red Bull’s sidelines, took over and scored two points in his five races filling in for Ricciardo. 

The Honey Badger returned in October for the United States Grand Prix and scored a total of six points in the remaining five races. This gave AlphaTauri some confidence in Ricciardo’s potential for a raucous return, but that was quelled swiftly and sadly this season. 

Ricciardo routinely finished behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying and racing sessions, only managing to score 12 points in 18 races, 10 less than his Japanese teammate. After a disappointing Singapore Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull’s junior team, now christened Visa Cashapp RB, elected to replace Ricciardo and promote Lawson to a race seat, giving him a chance to audition for a permanent spot on the team for 2025.

Ricciardo soon put up a post on Instagram, declaring his love for the sport and explaining how he became content with his career ending. He admitted that the lack of success in the twilight of his career made it easier for him to leave it.

“I still have a lot of love for the sport, but I also have to remind myself, OK, why did I come back? It was to try and be at the front again,” Ricciardo said. “I enjoy it. But when you’re not in the points, for sure it’s less enjoyable. I’m also 35. I’ve been at the front, I’ve experienced the champagne. I don’t want to hang onto something that might not ever come to fruition again. I’ve certainly had those conversations in my head.”

“I wouldn’t say that I would jump at any opportunity next year, that’s not the case. I’d probably say, ‘Peace.’”

What made him special?

Ricciardo became famous for his ambitious braking maneuvers, putting his car in precarious positions and choosing the latest possible braking point to pass opponents on corner entry while maintaining enough traction to rocket out on corner exit. He was courageous and ambitious, and carried out every life-risking maneuver with that goofy grin painted on his Australian face.

The Honey Badger challenged the best drivers the sport had ever seen, going wheel to wheel with the likes of Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, and so many other all-time greats and found ways to beat each and every one of them. His curly hair and ear-to-ear smile reeled people in, and his humorous attitude and infamous shoe-y’s kept them hooked. 

Regardless of how tragic his decline may have been, Ricciardo captured the hearts of F1 fans worldwide and despite not winning a single Drivers Championship, he put up a series of indisputably great records. His entry into Formula One unfortunately coincided with the Mercedes-AMG dynasty and the primes of Hamilton and Vettel, the greatest drivers of their generation and arguably of all time. Even though he never managed to capture that elusive championship victory, Ricciardo proved that he can compete with and beat the best speedsters in the world.

Notable statistics:

Daniel Ricciardo finished his career with the following notable statistical accolades:

• 10th in race entries (258)
• 10th in race starts (257)
• 6th in consecutive entries (232)
• 2nd in consecutive starts (232)
• Tied for 10th with Jacky Ickx for most race wins without winning a Drivers Championship (8)
• 10th in career points scored (1329)
• 3rd in most career points scored without winning a Drivers Championship (1329)
  • Best finish was 3rd in 2014 and 2016
• 10th in races finished (216, 84.05%)
• 3rd in consecutive race finishes (34)
• Was one of only three drivers to win a race in 2014 (Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardol)
• One of only 11 drivers ever to finish 100% of the races in a season (2016)

Zafir Nagji is the Sports Editor for The Reflector 2024-2025. His greatest interests are, in order, basketball, F1, hockey, soccer, and football, but he’ll watch anything with a competitive enough spirit.