Revealed: Daniel Ricciardo's 'behind closed doors' Lando Norris ...

Daniel Ricciardo had a “behind closed doors” meeting with Lando Norris after the Singapore Grand Prix as the Red Bull VCARB driver prepared to leave the F1 paddock for the last time.

That is the claim of F1 photographer Kym Illman, who says the former McLaren team-mates spent around 10 minutes together in a moment likely captured by the cameras of Netflix’s Drive to Survive show.

The Singapore Grand Prix is likely to prove the final race of Ricciardo‘s F1 career, with mounting rumours indicating that he will be replaced at VCARB by Red bull reserve driver Liam Lawson ahead of the next race in the United States.

Ricciardo cut an emotional figure at the end of the race in Singapore, with the 35-year-old treated to a guard of honour as he returned to the VCARB hospitality area.

That came after Ricciardo pitted for fresh tyres in the closing laps to set the fastest lap of the race, taking the bonus point away from race winner Norris, who trails Red Bull driver and World Championship leader Max Verstappen by 52 points with six races of the F1 2024 season remaining.

When informed over team radio after the chequered flag that Ricciardo had taken the fastest lap point away from Norris, Verstappen was heard responding: “Thank you, Daniel.”

Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal, was frustrated by Ricciardo’s fastest lap given VCARB’s shared ownership with Red Bull, stressing that F1 teams should “behave in a totally autonomous manner” and airing fears of a “coalition championship.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner denied there was any influence from his outfit, claiming “Daniel obviously wanted to finish the race on a high.”

Ricciardo’s future has yet to be officially addressed, with Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko confirming last week that VCARB’s F1 2025 driver lineup is set to be finalised ahead of next month’s US GP in Austin, Texas.

Marko has previously commented that Lawson “will definitely be in one of our cars next year” with Red Bull’s shareholders keen for VCARB to return to its Toro Rosso roots as a team to train young drivers.

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Appearing on his YouTube channel, Illman lifted the lid on what are likely to prove Ricciardo’s final moments as an active F1 driver, which included a short visit in the paddock from Norris, who dominated from pole position in Singapore to collect his third career victory.

Norris and Ricciardo spent two seasons as team-mates at McLaren across 2021/22, with Ricciardo famously ending McLaren’s nine-year wait for a victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Ricciardo parted company with McLaren at the end of the 2022 season, spending a short spell as Red Bull’s reserve driver before returning to a race seat with VCARB (then AlphaTauri) in July 2023.

Illman said: “At 1:46am on September 23, Daniel Ricciardo exited the F1 paddock for the last time as an F1 driver.

“The whole night was something bizarre and heartbreaking, F1 farewelling [sic] a driver who has not yet been announced as officially leaving.

“Speculation? Nope. Daniel was in no doubt of his future and neither was the rest of the paddock. There were plenty of tears.

“[He was] voted Driver of the Day. Sentimental vote? People knew that he was leaving the sport, they wanted to reward him with that.

“After the race he sat in his car for some time, soaking up what he knew was his last race.

“He stayed for probably one of the longest sessions I’ve ever encountered with a driver in the media pen. He talked to every single person that wanted to speak to him and sometimes for 15 minutes.

“He was happy and smiley for most of those interviews, that’s his nature, but in some interviews he was close to tears.

“He walked back to the hospitality suite and there was a guard of honour either side and they all clapped him as he came in. He was fist bumping and high fiving people and then he was behind closed doors for quite some time.

“Just after midnight, Lando Norris came down to see Daniel. They caught up behind closed doors in the back of the VCARB garage.

“Was there any media in there? Yeah, Netflix.

“If they weren’t in there, they were very close and I imagine this will be a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking episode to watch come next year.

“About 10 minutes later, Lando came out and left the paddock. At that point, that left Daniel as the only driver, as far as I could tell, still left in the paddock. And this is getting quite late.

“Yuki [Tsunoda] went into the garage,  Laurent Mekies [VCARB team principal] went into the garage and they both came out.

“And then eventually Daniel too emerged with his manager Blake and went back into the hospitality suite.

“More hugs, more tears and then it was upstairs for a time – and a long time. At that point, I got the feeling that Daniel just didn’t want to leave.

“Maybe he had a late flight, I couldn’t tell you exactly, but it was a bizarre thing to witness what was going on to a lovely fella.

“When he finally came down, he popped out to the kitchen to say ‘thank you’ to the crew out there and walked out to where we were standing.

“I remember vividly in Monza [in 2021], I’d spoken to his dad after he won the race and his dad said: ‘Give Daniel a hug from me’.

“I said, ‘Daniel, your dad sends you a hug’ – and he came back up the stairs and gave me a hug – which I thought was lovely at the time.

“I mentioned that to Daniel and said, ‘I owe you a hug’, because at that point he was hugging everyone, so I did get a hug from the great man and he posed for a photo with my son and myself.

“And then three fans collared him for a selfie and he took his cap off, signed it and gave it to one of those fans as if to say: ‘I’m not walking out with this on.’

“Even though he had the shirt on, he said: ‘Nah, you can have the hat.’

Illman went on to accuse Red Bull of doing Ricciardo “dirty” and “hanging him out to dry” after the 35-year-old was forced to answer questions related to his future throughout the Singapore Grand Prix.

And he expressed regret that Ricciardo faced such a low-key end to his F1 career, having established himself as one of the most prominent drivers in the sport over the course of the last decade.

He said: “All weekend he was delicately dancing around questions from the media about what was happening, but he couldn’t say anything – and Red Bull didn’t say anything.

“At this point, he’s not been announced as leaving the sport. Red Bull have said nothing.

“Why? No one knows.

“A couple of people have told me that Helmut wants him out, but Christian wants him still to be around.

“One thing’s for sure: it’s not a good look and I think a lot of you agree with me on this that Red Bull did him dirty on this. They hung him out to dry.

“The whole weekend he was dancing around these questions and it was awkward to watch.

“Daniel’s a beautiful guy with a big heart, but unfortunately he was left to field all of these questions without much support from Red Bull, I thought.

“And what of his successor, Liam Lawson? I had a quick chat with him over the weekend and he said: ‘Look, it’s just frustrating for me.’

“But rest assured, Liam will be in that car come Austin.

“So what now for Daniel?

“Well, in the next week or so I imagine he’ll go back to Australia and he will just sit there and wait for Red Bull to decide when they’re going to announce that Daniel is no longer driving for them.

“I’m sure if you’re a fan of Daniel’s or even just a decent person, you too would have wanted Daniel to go out on a high note where he could have said ‘thank you’ to everyone where everybody was in no doubt that this was his last drive, perhaps even doing donuts on the track to celebrate a stellar F1 career.

“Instead, there was no fanfare. It was just him and his manager at 1:46am leaving the Singapore Grand Prix paddock.

“I watched him walk down to the exit of the paddock and as he was nearly out of the paddock, he turned around and looked over his shoulder.

“And then, as he was about to step outside of the paddock for the final time, he looked up at some signage above. While this is all going on, there are forklifts coming backwards and forwards.

“It’s not the sort of exit you would have hoped for as a Formula 1 driver: pretty much the last person out of there, no one around, just a couple of cameras.”

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