RaceFans Round-up: ‘If it ends I’d be proud, not satisfied’

In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo says he wouldn’t feel satisfied with his F1 career if it does not continue after this season.

In brief

Ricciardo hoping for “stability” in F1 future

RB is expected to announce after this weekend’s race who will be Yuki Tsunoda’s team mate in 2025. With Liam Lawson tipped to get the drive, Ricciardo has reflected on what it would mean to him if his F1 career goes no further.

“If it ended today, I would be proud of what I’ve done,” he told CNN. “But on the same note, you’re never fully satisfied because the reason I got into Formula 1 was to try to become world champion. That’s something I’ll obviously still try and achieve until the day I retire.”

Ricciardo admitted his first full season in F1 after being dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022 had not gone as intended. “At the start of the season, I was not reaching my goals or reaching my potential, but managed to start turning that around,” he said.

“We have quite a new team and definitely with that comes new targets and new opportunity and for me it’s to obviously contribute to help the team.

“I’d say at this point [I’m] probably looking a bit more for that stability and just try to set something down for these last few years of my career. I don’t really want to be moving around too much anymore.”

Magnussen “very strong at this kind of track”

Magnussen will return to drive for Haas this weekend after serving his one-race ban during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend. Oliver Bearman, who substituted for him last week, scored the team’s only point in Baku, but Komatsu expects a stronger performance from his regular drivers at the Marina Bay track.

“Singapore is another challenging street circuit,” said Komatsu. “I’m looking forward to having Kevin back as he’s very strong at this kind of track, and he loves the challenge. Last year in a car that wasn’t very competitive, he managed to score a point.”

“For Nico, the flow of the Marina Bay Street Circuit is better than Baku, so he should be up there as well,” Komatsu added.

Todt speaks up for human rights

Former FIA president Jean Todt is speaking up more strongly for human rights in his current role as the United Nations’ special envoy for road safety. “5,350 civilians have been killed and more than 3.3 million displaced since the 2021 coup,” he wrote yesterday of the situation in Myanmar. “I deplore the human rights abuses in the country.”

Where was this concern for human rights when he had the power to act on it? During his time in charge of motorsport’s international governing body Todt was repeatedly urged to intervene over human rights matters in countries F1 visits, notably Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but a response he gave in 2021, the final year of his presidency, was typical of his reaction: “Sport should not be involved with politics.”

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