Red Bull have dropped the former Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo from their second team RB for the final races of the 2024 F1 season.

The 35-year-old Australian driver has been dropped with six rounds of the season to go. He will be replaced by Liam Lawson, with the 22-year-old Milton Keynes-based New Zealander taking a seat alongside Yuki Tsunoda for the rest of 2024.

Ricciardo’s exit came after it was widely reported over the weekend of the Singapore Grand Prix a week ago that he was on the verge of being dropped, with the Australian giving a series of visibly emotional interviews after the race where he seemed to have accepted his time with the team and potentially F1 as a whole was up.

Lawson will take the seat in the RB team for the final six rounds, starting with the United States Grand Prix when F1 returns from a break in mid-October. The spell will be Lawson’s second stint at Red Bull’s second team when he stood in for an injured Ricciardo for five races last year after the Australian suffered a hand injury in a practice session.

RB Team Principal Laurent Mekies thanked Ricciardo and welcomed back Lawson in a statement when the decision was announced earlier this week.

He said, “Everyone here at VCARB would like to thank Daniel for his hard work across the last two seasons with us. He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the Team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit. Daniel has been a true gentleman both on and off the track and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.

“I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome Liam. He already knows the Team well. He drove for us last season, and coped well under difficult circumstances, so it’ll be a natural transition. It’s great to see young talent from within the Red Bull family make the next step. We’re looking forward to getting our heads down and focusing on the rest of the season together.”

Ricciardo had previously driven for the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull Racing between 2014 and 2018, having joined after two seasons with Red Bull’s junior team then known as Toro Rosso. He took 7 wins and 29 podiums with Red Bull, but after dissatisfaction emerged, he opted to leave Red Bull at the end of the 2018 season.

He spent two years with Renault and then a further two at McLaren, but was dropped by the latter at the end of the 2022 season following poor form in comparison to team-mate Lando Norris.

Ricciardo initially returned to the Red Bull fold as a reserve driver for the 2023 season, but was promoted to Red Bull’s second team, then known as Alpha Tauri, as a replacement for Nyck de Vries and to assess if he had the skills to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing.

But Ricciardo’s form was ultimately deemed to have fallen short of showing what Red Bull were hoping for to justify dropping Perez in favour of the Australian. He scored 12 points in 2024 before his departure, registering ten fewer points than team-mate Tsunoda.