Latest Daniel Ricciardo F1 future updates as McLaren and Red Bull find ‘peace’

From Lando Norris taking a dominant win, however, the key talking point from the weekend has been the rumours swirling about the future of Daniel Ricciardo, with increasing speculation that the Singapore Grand Prix may well have been his last race in Formula 1 – at least for now.

F1 news: Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, McLaren and more

VCARB boss’ ‘may have been last race’ admission on Daniel Ricciardo

VCARB team principal Laurent Mekies explained that, given Daniel Ricciardo took the fastest lap of the race in Singapore on Sunday, that came with the admission that Sunday’s event may have been his final one with the team.

“Dan was on an aggressive strategy starting on softs and has put in some very good laps through the race, but had effectively no chance to get back into the good positions from so far back. He never gave up and fought all race long,” Mekies said.

“Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap.”

McLaren address ‘coalition championship’ issue after Daniel Ricciardo fastest lap

While stopping short of outright saying “sportsmanship” was in play on Sunday when Ricciardo took the fastest lap point, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella decided to take that moment “at face value”, but given a Red Bull-affiliated driver helped take a point away from Lando Norris in the title race, it could yet have ramifications down the line.

“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,” he explained.

“This is a Constructors’ Championship, it’s a Drivers’ Championship. It is not a coalition championship.

“This needs to be definitely be addressed. But at no point I have elements now to say Racing Bulls [VCARB] went for the fastest lap to support the Red Bull. I just find it a little… how to say… peculiar.”

Zak Brown and Christian Horner find ‘peace’ on flight home from Singapore

Perhaps one of the most outspoken critics of the ‘B-team’ model has been Zak Brown and he and Christian Horner have not always seen eye-to-eye on everything in recent seasons.

But after sharing a plane home from Singapore, the heads of Red Bull and McLaren were able to patch up whatever they needed to and shared a pally picture together afterwards.

As Brown said himself, where are Netflix when you need them in those moments, eh?

Mercedes duo struggle with ‘borderline heatstroke’ in Singapore

You may have noticed that both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were missing among our post-race coverage.

That’s because Mercedes explained after the Singapore Grand Prix that both of their drivers were excused from media duties after suffering with ‘borderline heatstroke’ after the race, with the 62 laps at Marina Bay among the most physically demanding of the season.

Both Hamilton and Russell were seen to by doctors after the race and Toto Wolff assured they were okay after taking on more fluids, but another reminder – if ever it were needed – that these drivers are at the limits of their physical powers when racing at Singapore.

Conclusions from a busy Singapore Grand Prix weekend

While the consensus appears to be that Singapore may have been Daniel Ricciardo’s last weekend at VCARB, our own Oliver Harden posited the theory that we may not have seen the last of him within the Red Bull stable yet.

For that and several more key takeaways from the weekend at Marina Bay, look no further.