Daniel Ricciardo is still keeping an eye on Formula 1, and he has some thoughts about how this season is playing out.
Max Verstappen won the United States Grand Prix on Monday morning to move within 40 points of championship leader Oscar Piastri and is now considered a favourite to win his fifth title in a row.
Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
Piastri has gone three consecutive races without finishing on the podium and is in desperate need of a strong result at next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix to reassert himself as the man to beat.
Ricciardo, who drove his final F1 race at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, is enjoying retirement and has said he doesn’t plan on returning to F1 — Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez are tipped to return to the grid in 2026 with American team Cadillac.
Asked if he planned on coming back to motor racing, the 36-year-old Aussie said: “My neck ain’t so strong anymore, haha. No more neck training, thank the lord, haha, I hated that part. “And the neck, it’s so intense that first sector.”
Ricciardo and Verstappen’s time as teammates ended acrimoniously but there’s plenty of goodwill between the pair, as Ricciardo showed during a WhatsApp chat with fans during the USA Grand Prix.
“Haha yeah. Max is ridiculous. Kid’s so good. Yes, I am stating the obvious now,” Ricciardo wrote as part of his running commentary.”
Verstappen was never challenged for the lead and drove such a flawless race Ricciardo joked the four-time world champion might have had his mind on other matters.
“Meanwhile Max is contacting the restaurant about his steak cooked medium rare for later tonight,” he quipped.
Speaking about the title race, Ricciardo added: “I am looking forward to it and Max is keeping this championship even more exciting than it already was.”
Ricciardo was also full of praise for Charles Leclerc, who battled for almost the entire race to keep his Ferrari in front of Lando Norris, who eventually passed him in the closing laps.
“Charles still holding on is impressive,” Ricciardo wrote.
The former Red Bull, Renault and McLaren driver also gave a shoutout to Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, saying: “Tsunoda’s had another good first few laps. Two days in a row he’s come through nicely.”
Despite Tsunoda’s solid showing of P7 in both the sprint and main race, there are reports the Japanese driver could be axed from Red Bull for next year, with Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko set to make a decision after the Mexican Grand Prix.
Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar is widely expected to be tapped on the shoulder for a promotion to the senior team.
Sky Sports pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz said: “You, me, him down the pub, and them down the shops all know that Yuki Tsunoda is not going to be Max Verstappen’s teammate next year.
“It’s going to be Isack Hadjar. In fact, we’ve pretty much known that since Isack Hadjar got the podium in Zandvoort.
“But Helmut Marko was playing his cards close to his chest today when he said that ‘we will make a decision after Mexico’ as to the fate of Yuki Tsunoda.
“Let’s take Helmut at his word, and we’ll see if Yuki has got until after Mexico to see if he’s going to be Max’s teammate next year, or indeed if he’s going to stay in the Red Bull family at all.”
Tsunoda is 16th in the drivers’ standings on 28 points, behind Racing Bulls drivers Hadjar and Liam Lawson.
If Hadjar is promoted to Red Bull in 2026, he would become Verstappen’s seventh teammate at Red Bull.
Sprint crash made McLaren’s race a struggle
Oscar Piastri looked a bit short on pace during the race with McLaren bosses at somewhat of a loss to explain why he was battling to catch up to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Kravitz believes that the double DNF in the sprint, when Piastri bumped into Lando Norris at Turn 1 and ended their races, robbed the team of the chance to get key data to prepare for the race.
“It was all made worse for McLaren at the sprint race because in Oscar’s ill judged move into Nico Hulkenberg, that hit him into Norris,” Kravitz said on his Ted’s Notebook program.
“And because neither McLaren did a sprint race, they didn’t know how either car was going to be on its ride height.
“They didn’t know how to set the ride height to the perfect position, to be close to the ground to get nice downforce but wear away the legality plank – the piece of wood they have under the car to stop teams running the car too close to the ground.
“So they had to be conservative. They had to raise the car up a little bit and give themselves some margin. So performance just ebbed away. Red Bull won the sprint so they knew exactly where to suspend their car so they’d be as close to the ground as possible, maximum downforce and not wear away the plank.
“They got it spot on. Ferrari and Mercedes got it spot on. But McLaren had to take some margin.”
Read related topics:Daniel Ricciardo
