Is this Danny Ricc’s time?

Daniel Ricciardo: Everyone’s Champion! – By Joe Man

The world of Formula one can be a sour place of mistrust and arguments however it seems everyone agrees on one thing. We all love Daniel!

Ricciardo is simply a very likeable guy with a wicked sense of humour and a stunning turn of speed. From the day he arrived in the sport Daniel has turned heads for many reasons. He has always been phenomenally quick and you could argue the best racer out there.

Although proudly Australian, Ricciardo has Italian heritage. He began Karting at the age of nine before moving through the Formula Ford, Renault and BMW racing series. Daniel’s racing career is surprisingly not full of titles. Winning the British Formula 3 title is probably his highest championship win.
When the opportunity came up to test for Red Bull’s young driver program, Daniel set the time sheets alight! He was the fastest out of everyone and scored himself the team’s test and reserve driver role for 2009.

After constantly impressing in testing Riccardo got his first Formula 1 seat for the old HRT team. Two years followed at Toro Rosso before Red bull came calling for him to replace fellow Australian Mark Webber.
It seems that the day Daniel Ricciardo sat in a Rad Bull car his career took off. He was second in only his first race before being controversially disqualified over a fuel flow issue. What was most impressive was they way he destroyed team mate and four time world champion Sebastian Vettel. You could see as the year went on it started to really get to Vettel. It didn’t come as a huge surprise when Vettel announced he was leaving at the end of the year for Ferrari. Vettel had always dreamed of driving for Ferrari but he also knew he had more than his hands full with the young Aussie.
Over the following five years Ricciardo’s Red Bull days where filled with glittering wins and incredible drives. Sadly for Daniel he never had the car to truly contend for a championship against the dominant Mercedes. When they came, the wins were glorious.

Riccardo became truly the king of late breaking coming from no where to pull off outrageous overtakes. He lived up to his nickname the Honey Badger scavenging victories from nothing. The world took notice of not only his driving but his hilarious Aussie fun loving larrikin antics.
Things started to go wrong between Ricciardo and Red Bull in 2018. The infamous Azerbaijan clash between him and then team mate Max Verstappen became a turning point. All of a sudden Daniel felt the team shifting its full focus towards the young flying Dutchman. Add to that the most reliability issues of any driver that year and Ricciardo was done.
Still Red Bull boss Christian Horner still says he thought Daniel was playing one of his practical jokes when he told him he was going to Renault. Its a decision that shocked the paddock at the time and I guess we will never know whether deep in his mind he felt he couldn’t beat Verstappen in the same car.

The two years at Renault where hardly glittering with his only two podiums coming in his last few races. In an unusual twist Daniel raced his second year with the team having already announced he would move to McLaren for 2021.
McLaren had wanted Riccardo for some time. With Zac Brown at the helm and fellow fun loving driver Lando Norris as a team mate it felt like a perfect fit. 2021 however by Ricciardo’s high standards did not go to plan. He came up again a young driver in Norris in his second season with the team and flying. The frustration for Daniel was becoming clear. Week after week he would be on the edge of even getting out of the first two qualifying sessions while his team mate was in the top five. Try as he might it seemed he just could feel the car under his feet.
On top of that Ricciardo is a strong family man and admitted himself he was struggling with not being able to travel home to Australia due to Covid restrictions. Finally during the mid season break he returned home before returning fresh and fast. He stunned everyone with victory at the Italian Grand Prix and we got to see his famous Shoey full of champagne!

2022 is going to be a defining year for Ricciardo. He has a year under his belt with the team and with the new regulations it’s an even playing field. Assuming McLaren build a fast car his first issue will be team mate Lando Norris. If Daniel can’t match him its hard to see where his career goes from there. This new generation of talent have prooved they are going to be very tough to beat and Ricciardo needs to show to everyone including himself that he can go with them.


There would never be a more popular champion if Daniel could do it and I don’t see why he can’t. If after the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain we are looking at a rocket McLaren then we are in for a treat.
Riccardo and Norris have raced well together and will likely keep it clean unless it comes to championship racing. Then we will see.

I for one will be cheering loudly to see that Honey Badger taking it to the Max! {Excuse the pun}