Daniel Ricciardo’s final grand prix in Singapore came with lots of heavy emotion, as he stepped away from the paddock for the final time.
The 2024 Singapore Grand Prix remained fairly uneventful, marking the first race in the country not to have a safety car in its 15-year history.
Lando Norris headed into the weekend 59 points behind the championship leader, Max Verstappen, with every point important in the final seven races of the year.
McLaren’s Norris started from pole position and looked on the way to claiming his first Formula 1 grand slam in the closing stages of the race.
The Brit held the fastest lap of the race until the final lap and was on the way to taking his third victory of the 2024 season, until Daniel Ricciardo caused a great upset.
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls use Daniel Ricciardo to set the fastest lap
The biggest controversy of the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix came from Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, who boxed Ricciardo on the second-to-last lap for a fresh set of soft tyres.
The Australian driver went back out onto the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with his fresh tyres able to help him take the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Ricciardo took the fastest lap record away from Norris, with the Brit also losing the point he would have gained at the end of the grand prix.
It came as a controversial move from VCARB as Ricciardo did not qualify for the one point he would get for the fastest lap as he finished the race in P18.
The move called into question whether Red Bull’s sister team had used the Australian to ensure that Norris’s gap to Verstappen reduced to 52 points instead of 51, as the Dutchman faced pressure from McLaren in the season’s closing stages.
At the time, the team claimed the decision to pit Ricciardo for the fastest lap was to give the driver a proper send-off, after growing speculation that it was the eight-time race winner’s final grand prix.
The decision caused controversy amongst the paddock, with McLaren CEO Zak Brown telling Motorsport Week: ““Look, this is a big matter. As soon as you invoke the sportsmanship, I think you need to approach this with a sense of responsibility that I want to have.
“I don’t know the facts, I just saw that Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap and they achieved it.” before he later added: “So I think we have to take it at face value, they scored the fastest lap and potentially as part of a longer-term conversation we need to put the sport in a position in which at any stage, being it trackside or being it factory side, teams behave in a totally autonomous manner because this is a Constructors’ Championship, a Drivers’ Championship.
“It’s not a coalition championship. Therefore this needs to be definitely addressed. But at no point I have elements now to say Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap to support Red Bull. I just find it a little, how to say, peculiar.”
Three weeks after the grand prix, the FIA announced that it would be dropping the point for the fastest lap from the 2025 season.
The sports governing body did not give a specific reason for the rule change, which was originally introduced in 2019. Although the FIA didn’t clarify what caused the change, it appeared to have come from the controversy around Ricciardo’s fastest lap.
Daniel Ricciardo leaves the F1 paddock for the final time
In the early hours of Monday, 23 September 2024, Daniel Ricciardo left the F1 paddock for what would be the final time.
Many speculated that the decision had already been made by VCARB, and with other drivers seen heading into their buildings, it appeared to confirm the speculation.
Just after midnight, Norris joined Ricciardo in the VCARB garage for a farewell behind closed doors, before the Australian left the Singapore paddock.
Earlier in the evening, Ricciardo had appeared quite emotional in the media pen, as he spoke about sitting in the car for longer at the end of the race to fully take in the moment.
At the beginning of September 2025, Ricciardo officially announced his retirement from motor racing alongside the news that he would be joining Ford Racing as their new ambassador.