What is Daniel Ricciardo doing after Formula 1, will he return to the grid, Aussie’s comeback chances assessed, Cadillac

Daniel Ricciardo may have left Formula 1, but the loveable Aussie never feels too far away from the grand prix world.

Ricciardo bade farewell to F1 last September, when his year-long comeback with the Racing Bulls team was cut short six races from the end of the season.

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But while the sport has moved on quickly — it always does — the eight-time grand prix winner is never more than a phone call away.

“I actually spoke to Daniel last week,” Liam Lawson said ahead of the weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The Kiwi, who replaced him at the Racing Bulls team last season, had hit up the Australian for advice tackling the iconic Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the first time.

Ricciardo had qualified a stunning fifth and 0.178 seconds off the pace in 2024 before scoring his first Sunday points of the season.

It was also the scene of his famous first win in 2014, his breakthrough campaign with Red Bull Racing.

“He loved it,” Lawson said. “[The track] is unique, it’s something that we all enjoy, and I’m looking forward to it.”

The Ricciardo-Lawson relationship might seem like an odd one from the outside when so much of the 2024 season had been about the Kiwi’s impending elevation to the team at the Aussie’s expense.

But it’s a mark of Ricciardo’s humility that he never held his axing against Lawson — on the contrary.

“I actually spoke to Daniel a lot when it was happening. I will always have so much respect for him,” Lawson recounted to GQ.

“Throughout the whole ordeal, from when the rumours started to when they were confirmed, he never said a bad word about or towards me.

“He never made it about me and him, because at the end of the day it wasn’t our decision.

“It’s up to the team and what they decide to do. He was so good to me through all of it.”

Ricciardo’s support didn’t stop with Lawson’s promotion to his seat either.

“Fast forward to December, when I got the Red Bull seat, and Daniel is still the only driver, past or present, to send me a message about it, congratulating me.

“It says a lot about him as a person.”

But Ricciardo’s been supportive from a distance. Despite the Australian being in high demand for punditry and opinion, he’s remained strictly separated from the sport that was his life for 14 years.

The closest he’s got to an F1 paddock was opening a pop-up shop for his clothing brand Enchanté on Melbourne’s iconic Chapel Street the week before this year’s Australian Grand Prix.

He was gone long before track action commenced the next suburb over.

In a rare interview supporting that launch, Ricciardo gave a tiny glimpse into his post-F1 life.

“The greatest thing about my days now is not having a schedule,” he told GQ. “I have things to do, but I am not under time pressure.

“Racing was down to the minute, and it became stressful to constantly live in such a tight, scheduled regime.

“I can wake up now and go for a walk to get a coffee. It’s all about doing the little things, which I never felt I had the time to do before.”

He’s embraced his civilian life with gusto. In the months since his F1 exit Ricciardo finally made it to his first Buffalo Bills home game, and he was spotted at other fan events during the season.

Ricciardo became a diehard fan of the NFL team after 2019, when he met quarterback Josh Allen at that year’s Monaco Grand Prix. He and Allen have since become close friends and own a racehorse together.

He has taken his love of NFL into his new venture with with sports betting company Dabble to launch “Dabble Dan’s Tailgate Service”, an initiative built around turning game day into an immersive, social fan experience.

As part of the partnership, Ricciardo will be embracing the uniquely US tradition of tailgating.

This involves coming together before a major sporting event to gather around the open tailgate of a vehicle and enjoy a barbecue before the game kicks off.

As part of the competition fans in Australia, the US and the UK will have the chance to tailgate with Ricciardo in Texas during this year’s NFL season.

The Aussie has also had more time to spend with good mate Scotty James, the Australian snowboarder and Olympic medallist married to Chloe Stroll, the sister of F1 driver Lance Stroll.

It’s not been all leisure, though. As one of the sport’s most in-demand talents during his career, Ricciardo already had several irons in the fire that have been keeping him occupied in retirement.

He released his first limited-edition wine with Barossa Valley winery St Hugo in 2021 and has been releasing new vintages ever since. Earlier this year he released his first rosé with a cheeky video completed with a shoey fountain.

His clothing brand, Enchanté, is going from strength to strength, with pop-stores in Austin, Las Vegas, New York City and Melbourne all opening to huge crowds eager to dress in the Aussie’s label.

Fittingly, his clothing line has brought him back to Formula 1 via a partnership with the Racing Bulls F1 Academy team, where the Enchanté logo appears on team kit and the car of 20-year-old Brazilian Rafaela Ferreira.

It’s perhaps as close to a paddock as he’s come since walking out the gate in Singapore last year.

Idle speculation about a possible comeback has followed him in the months since, but there’s never been any real indication the Aussie is considering a second attempt at a career revival. Despite some attempting to link him to the Cadillac team, which will debut next year, there’s no indication he’s in the mix.

Having made so few public appearances since last September, it’s hard to know what Ricciardo has in store next.

But at only 35 years old and with eight grand prix wins in his pocket, he won’t be short of options when he decides to embark on his next adventure.

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For full T&Cs visit DabbleDan.com Game of skill. One entry per person. Open to AUS residents 21+. Entry is free. Competition opens at 6:00AM AEST on 19/6/2025 and closes at 12:00PM AEST on 1/8/2025. Judging commences from 10:00AM AEST on 8/8/2025 and the winner will be notified via phone and email.