Red Bull bids farewell to Danny Ric!

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Red Bull Racing made sure that they gave Daniel Ricciardo a fittingly boisterous farewell when he made his final visit to the team factory at Milton Keynes on Friday.

The Australian has been with Red Bull and its junior Toro Rosso squad for a total of seven seasons, but shocked the team by deciding to leave at the end of 2018.

He's moving to Renault at the start of next year, while his spot at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen has been handed to Pierre Gasly.

Despite some occasionally stormy on-track clashes, Ricciardo and Verstappen have retained a surprisingly good friendship as team mates, as these pictures from their final joint appearance with the team proves.

"It’s been an absolute pleasure having you in our team for the last five seasons," the team had told him over the radio as he completed his last race for them in Abu Dhabi last Sunday.

“Seven victories. All the podiums. All the high moments. We’re going to miss you," the message continued. “We wish you all the best for the future and we’ll hold very fondly the moments that we had together."

All the team staff, designers and engineers back at base got their chance to say goodbye to the popular driver when he made one last visit to the team's headquarters.

Let's hope that Ricciardo finds similar success at his new home in Enstone.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.