Daniel Ricciardo by no means gave up on his Components 1 race seat till the final second, in response to RB CEO Peter Bayer.

Most of the widespread Australian driver’s followers have been livid that crew proprietor Pink Bull stored secret the information that Ricciardo, 35, would get replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore GP – when it was apparent to nearly everybody.

Bayer, although, stated it was Ricciardo himself who requested the crew to carry again the official affirmation of his ousting.

“We had agreed with Daniel that we might not talk it,” he informed Auto Motor und Sport.

“We knew that it might look a bit odd, however we additionally did it to guard our driver. It was his want,” Bayer added.

In keeping with Bayer, Ricciardo clung to the concept that he would possibly have the ability to carry out so effectively in Singapore that Pink Bull may need a change of coronary heart. Different rumours recommend a race win or podium in Singapore might have triggered contract clauses that assured that he would have the ability to race on.

“He believed till the very finish that he would end on the entrance in qualifying and present everybody what he might do,” stated Bayer.

“I’ve by no means seen such psychological power in an athlete as this particular person has. And I’ve been in lots of sports activities.”

Sadly, Singapore – Ricciardo’s final race in F1 – was not a very good weekend for the motive force.

“It was a horrible second when he was eradicated in Q1,” stated Bayer. “You can already hear on the radio that his world had collapsed.

“We then sat collectively in our workplace at two within the morning and requested him what we must always do now. He informed us we must always simply let him drive the race. He simply didn’t need any fuss.”

In the long run, Ricciardo was tearful after the Singapore GP evening race on Sunday – but it surely was nonetheless a number of days earlier than Pink Bull lastly confirmed that Lawson could be in his cockpit for the rest of the season.

A lot of his followers have been livid with Pink Bull.

“As a crew, we stood up for him,” Bayer insists. “If Daniel had stayed till Abu Dhabi, after all we might have celebrated his farewell with fireworks and pictures on the grid, like what occurred with (Kimi) Raikkonen. That’s what everybody would have wished.”

He additionally factors out that it was Pink Bull who really gave Ricciardo a second likelihood to shine in Components 1 after being axed by McLaren, additionally for poor efficiency, on the finish of 2022.

“We gave him one other likelihood that no person thought doable,” stated Bayer. “It was vital for us that on the finish of the day we might look within the mirror and say that we did the suitable factor for him – even when the entire world and his 9 million Instagram followers have been bashing us.”