No, I’m not Daniel Ricciardo, but he is. Infiniti Red Bull Racing has put together a short clip with Daniel. Check it out below and hear what the three-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner has to say about the beginnings of his career.
There’s also a few words after the video taking us through Daniel’s pathway to F1.
And if you’re a Daniil Kvyat fan, you might want to watch this.
Today is Daniel Ricciardo’s birthday. Happy birthday Dan, would you like to drive for Ferrari in 2016?
Ricciardo has spoken candidly about his future ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, so, let’s see what the man himself has to say.
“I won’t go into too much detail, but first and foremost, not talking about contracts, but what I want is to win and I guess that is a lot of my frustration this year as we are not in a position to win,†Daniel said.
“Obviously with contracts it is not as easy as saying ‘I’ll go to Ferrari and that is that’, there are things in place and from my understanding of contracts it is not likely that I can get out.
“But at the same time I really feel that Red Bull can make a change for next year and can get back up the front. We have the people in the team and the ingredients to do it, it is just making that next step.
“On the Ferrari thing it is nice to be recognised by a team like that, I guess I’ll take it as a compliment and see what happens.
“I will probably never rule anything out completely, because I don’t have experience with contracts. I haven’t been in F1 all that long. I am sure things can change; anything can change.
“Dietrich (Mateschitz, Red Bull owner) said some things in the press as well, and you never know what is going to happen. As I said, it is unlikely but yeah …â€
The question about a move to Ferrari was posed to Daniel following ongoing speculation that Maurizio Arrivabene, Ferrari Team Principal, is ready to dump Kimi Raikkonen at the end of this season.
Sensing the apparent departure it’s been reported several drivers have approached Ferrari to offer their services. When Arrivabene was asked if a potential shortlist of drivers included Daniel Ricciardo he said no, but added: “Perhaps he does not have my number.”
Was that a subtle invitation to Daniel there? Either way we can’t imagine his bosses will be overly happy with Daniel’s willingness to talk about leaving Red Bull before his contract expires.
And no surprises for guessing that Sebastian Vettel is very happy with his current (under performing) teammate.
[Source: Fox Sports]
This time next week we’ll be well and truly in Australian Grand Prix mode. To help get you ready for the forthcoming season, and with a local Aussie flavour, here’s a 13-minute highlights package from 2014 that’s all about Daniel Ricciardo.
Last season Dan made his mark on the world of F1. It was a big challenge to take on the well-entrenched four-time world champion on the other side of the garage at Red Bull. Not only did Ricciardo take Vettel on, he beat him handsomely.
Moreover, Daniel showed he has balls of steel when he is on a charge. He made overtaking moves stick that he had no right to make. And he did it cleanly. Ricciardo was a breath of fresh air in 2014 and his three race wins amidst a season-long Mercedes AMG domination shows he is a superstar in the making.
Let’s hope we see a lot more of Daniel soaked in champagne atop the podium in 2015 and beyond.
When Red Bull first revealed their RB11 in its eye catching camouflage testing livery they told us the final look for 2015 would be just as awesome. Yeah, not really chaps, you’ve just moved a few bits around from the 2014 car, taken some stripes away and made the purple a bit brighter.
Anyway, here’s what the 2015 Red Bull Racing F1 car will look like. Let’s hope Daniel Ricciardo can get across the line first a few more times this year too.
Lotus can leave the first Barcelona test with bragging rights after Romain Grosjean (1:24.067) set the fastest time of the week overnight. He comfortably outpaced Nico Rosberg (1:24.321) and Daniil Kvyat (1:24.941).
On Saturday Lotus was again the team on top, this time in the hands of Pastor Maldonado (1:24.348), who was also quickest on day 1 in Barcelona. Young punk Max Verstappen (1:24.739) showed the Toro Rosso day care centre that he’s got genuine pace, with a gap over one second back to Lewis Hamilton (1:26.076).
Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo (1:24.574) set the best lap on Friday, narrowly edging out the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen (1:24.584). A touch further back was Felipe Massa (1:24.672).
A full list of times and total laps covered by each driver from the previous three days of testing can be seen below.
Pastor Maldonado has topped the time sheets (1:25.011) on the opening day of testing in Barcelona overnight.
The Lotus driver made good use of his new Mercedes power unit and some fresh soft tyres to set his best lap late in what was quite an exciting day, as far as pre-season testing goes.
Kimi Raikkonen (1:25.167) again kept Ferrari near the pointy end, while Daniel Ricciardo was the third fastest (1:25.547). The top three had a full second clear back to the remaining pack.
“The car felt good today, we got a bit of running done on a few different [tyre] compounds, which was interesting and we got a lot of data, which is always good,” said Daniel. “I think we’re chipping away. We’re definitely making progress but it takes time. However, I think come Melbourne we’ll be there.”
The excitement came from a minor coming together with Felipe Nasr (Sauber) and Susie Wolff (Williams). In the morning session Nasr had shown good pace, heading the field, but that all came undone after he ran into the back of Wolff’s car. The damage was minor and both drivers were able to get back on track later in the day.
Lewis Hamilton set the slowest time of the day and ended his running early due to illness. The world champion completed only 11 laps and his departure meant that reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein was quickly recalled from his loan spell with Force India. Wehrlein was able to complete 48 laps in the W06, after putting in 32 laps for Force India earlier in the day.
Day one of Formula 1 pre-season testing is currently underway in Jerez and without any fanfare or launch of any kind Daniel Ricciardo simply wheeled out of the pits and drove onto the circuit.
And with that the 2015 RB11 was revealed. Well, kind of.
As you can see, for reasons best known to them, Red Bull has chosen to run with a temporary camouflage livery. They do say that, obvious nose change aside, most changes to the car compared with the RB10 have been made under the skin.
Outwardly Red Bull has been rushed in its preparation of the RB11 and has only just had its chassis’ crash tests approved. Team boss Christian Horner is downplaying any such talk, of course.
“We’ve been pushing to the limit as usual,” Horner said. “We had a very tight timescale for the car to be prepared in time for the first test, but that’s normal in this team.
“If you’re not on the limit you’re not trying hard enough.”
Daniel Ricciardo is keen to build on his stellar 2014 season and is itching to get back on track.
“There was plenty of pressure on me last year to prove myself in a top team,” Ricciardo said. “I think everyone knows now what I’m capable of so I’m excited—excited to build on what we achieved in 2014 and ready to give Mercedes a good fight.”
Young Daniel will be joined by an even younger Daniil this year and the expectation will be that D1 is faster than D2. We look forward to seeing how this intra-team rivalry pans out.
Another Formula 1 season has come and gone and, as usual, it’s been a hell of a ride. Lews Hamilton’s win in Abu Dhabi secured his second world crown and put the perfect exclamation mark on a season of dominance for Mercedes AMG.
It’s a big job for a sole contributor compiling a season’s worth of F1 images too. Apologies for the delay in getting these images to you, but I’m not scared to admit there’s a sense of relief in posting the last gallery of photos for the year.
Never fear, the lure of F1 is great and I’ll be back again in 2015, hope to see you here.
Before you wake up at ungodly hour to follow the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend here’s your pictorial reminder of what went down in Austin last weekend.
With his tenth win of 2014 Lewis Hamilton became the winningest British driver in Formula 1 (to use the bastardised US vernacular). The 2008 world champ now has 32 career wins, one more than Nigel Mansell.
Here’s what the first three drivers in the United States Grand Prix had to say after this morning’s race. Not surprisingly there were a few questions about the double points coming up in Abu Dhabi. We can expect those questions to increase until the season climax in the middle east.
In some ways the best result in Brazil this weekend would be to see Nico win and Lewis have a retirement. That way the two drivers would go into the final race separated by a single point and the double points novelty is just that, a novelty and not the determining factor in who wins the championship.
Lewis Hamilton has extended his championship lead by winning the United States Grand Prix. With two races left he now enjoys a 24 point lead over his teammate, Nico Rosberg, who finished second in Austin.
Rosberg made a clean getaway from pole and held Hamilton at bay until around one third race distance. Once Hamilton took the lead he had Rosberg’s measure.
Finishing third was Daniel Ricciardo who dropped places after a poor start from P5. He fought his way back up the field through a combination of great on track driving and clean pit stops.
The Williams pairing of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished fourth and fifth. Ricciardo overtook Massa in the last round of tyre changes and opened up a small but comfortable gap. Massa came back late in the race but couldn’t get past the likeabkle Australian.
Fernando Alonso finished sixth ahead of a fast charging Sebastian Vettel who made a late change for fresh tyres and spiced up the latter part of the race with his charge through the pack. Kevin Magnussen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top 10.
Maldonado finished P9 on track but was given a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He still finished in the points, the first time for him in 2014.
The F1 circus backs up next weekend in Sao Paulo before the double points novelty of Abu Dhabi closes out the season. Of course, that means Rosberg can easily close up that 24 point gap to Hamilton with a good drive or a stroke of luck.
However, Hamilton has won five races in a row now and has 10 wins for the year, compared with Rosberg’s four victories. It would be unjust if Hamilton didn’t win his second world title. And if that proves to be the case won’t the British F1 media mafia let it be known!
The fun has come and gone from the Sochi sun and the Russian Grand Prix passed by without any idiot from the Formula 1 world threatening to “shirtfront” Putin. Which, in some ways, in just as bad as it would have been if some idiot did engage his mouth before his brain.
Anyway, enough of that, let’s just try and enjoy the images from the race. Hopefully, they’re not quite as dull as the on track action ended up.