The 2024 Formula 1 season saw plenty of change on the grid with several driver swaps taking place across the campaign.
While Oliver Bearman made a brief cameo in place of Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, it was only Logan Sargeant and Daniel Ricciardo who permanently lost their seats during the campaign.
Esteban Ocon could technically be added to that list as well after being replaced by Jack Doohan for the final race of the season, albeit with a move to Haas already lined up.
Sargeant was under pressure for some time at Williams and never really looked convincing during his 35-race run in F1.
Tom Coronel believes Sargeant was never fast enough for Formula 1, but the same can’t be said about Ricciardo.
The Australian was an eight-time race winner when he dropped off the grid in 2022 after a difficult spell at McLaren before returning to RB the following year.
The unfortunate timing of the injury he picked up at Zandvoort a few races into his comeback didn’t help, handing Liam Lawson his F1 debut.
Upon his return, he put in a few promising performances, but never reached the level required by Red Bull.
Ricciardo has lined up as a Sergio Perez replacement at one point this year but ultimately lost his seat before the Mexican.
McLaren and RB spotted ‘mental’ issue in Daniel Ricciardo ahead of F1 exit
Journalist Mat Coch spoke on the Speedcafe YouTube channel about how the Australian’s career in F1 ended this year.
Coch was asked what went wrong for Ricciardo at the end of his F1 career and said: “It’s the multi-million dollar question because the simple answer is that no one really knows.
“This sort of goes back to McLaren where it all sort of started to unravel and no one had an answer.
“They started to throw the kitchen sink at it to try and get Daniel comfortable there and it just didn’t work.
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“You wind that forward to RB and you get to that reprieve mid-season last year and it looked like it was going to click and then for whatever reason it doesn’t.
“There’s no rhyme nor reason. They tried different chassis, they tried different setups, they threw everything at it and there’s no definable reason as to why this didn’t work.
“His form just disappeared and it seems as though from everyone that I’ve spoken to over the McLaren and the RB tenure, it seems as though it’s a mental thing.
“His ability hasn’t gone away, something seems to have changed mentally for him as much as anything else.”
Daniel Ricciardo survived Helmut Marko sacking threat before 2024 exit
The purpose of the RB team is to develop young drivers to potentially join Max Verstappen at Red Bull in the future.
Ricciardo’s return in 2023 to return Nyck de Vries – who himself was 28 when he left the team – therefore made little sense.
However, Ricciardo was popular with team principal Christian Horner and a strong marker for Yuki Tsunoda to judge himself against.
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Helmut Marko wanted to remove Ricciardo for Lawson much earlier than he was finally let go.
Marko wants to clear a path for Red Bull’s youngsters and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Tsunoda entering the final year of his time with the team in 2025 as he appears to be immune from earning that coveted promotion.
Horner is very excited about Arvid Lindblad, while Isack Hadjar is the latest driver being tested against Tsunoda.
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