Why was Daniel Ricciardo's departure not made public in Singapore? RB boss spills the beans
RB Peter Bayer has opened up on Daniel Ricciardo's exit from the team not being made public, claiming it was the Australian's wish to do it that way. The race weekend in Singapore had begun with reports circulating that it was going to be Ricciardo's last race with the Faenza-based team.
Throughout the weekend, both the driver and the team denied an exit, but by the end of it, it became more or less a certainty that the Australian would not be a part of the team after the Singapore GP.
Following Ricciardo's official exit, there was a lot of backlash on social media for RB and Red Bull because of the manner in which they had gone through with the removal of the driver. There were questions raised on why this was done with so much secrecy as many felt he could have been given a much better farewell.
As it turns out, the reason behind that was Daniel Ricciardo not wanting to make the news public. RB boss Peter Bayer said this week that the Australian wanted to keep the news a secret. He told AMuS,
"We had agreed with Daniel that we would not communicate it. We knew that we would look a bit old as a team. But we also did it to protect the driver. It was his wish."
He added,
"He believed until the very end that he would finish at the front in qualifying and show everyone what he could. I have never seen such mental strength in an athlete as this person has. And I have been in many sports."
Bayer also revealed that after a poor qualifying session, RB had a chat with Daniel Ricciardo about making the news public but the Australian did not want to be fussed about it. He said,
"It was a terrible moment when he was eliminated in Q1. You could already hear on the radio that his world had collapsed. We then spoke to him again on Saturday. We sat together in our office at two in the morning and asked him what we should do now. He then told us that we should just let him drive the race. He just didn't want any fuss."
RB and Red Bull gave Daniel Ricciardo a second chance
Peter Bayer also highlighted that it was RB and Red Bull that gave Daniel Ricciardo a second chance, something that "nobody thought possible." He said,
"As a team, we stood up for him. If Daniel had driven to Abu Dhabi, then of course we would have celebrated his farewell with fireworks and photos on the grid, like we did with Räikkönen back then. That's what everyone would have wanted."
He added,
"We gave him another chance that nobody thought possible. It was important for us that at the end of the day we could look in the mirror and say that we did it right. Even if the whole world and his nine million Instagram fans were bashing us."
With Liam Lawson doing a strong job after replacing Daniel Ricciardo, it's safe to say that the Australian finding a path back to the sport seems unlikely.