There is no mistaking how serious Daniel Ricciardo is when he says “it would suck” if he was forced out of Formula One, should Red Bull’s difficulties in finding an engine supplier cause the team to withdraw from the sport. Yet the Australian still displays his familiar beam when he speaks.
The grin reveals what is at the heart of this most likable of drivers – that regardless of the situation nothing is going to detract from the fundamental enjoyment he derives from being part of the sport. Pleasingly too, he never tries to hide it.
Despite Bernie Ecclestone’s insistence at the last round in Russia that Red Bull’s bid to find a competitive engine supplier had been sorted, as F1 heads to Texas this weekend no further news nor confirmation of a deal has been forthcoming. Red Bull’s owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, has said he would make a decision about withdrawing from the sport by the end of this month.
Ricciardo, then, must cope with this uncertainty on top of what has been a difficult season, in which his car has struggled for pace and yielded only two podium places. But despite all this he has borne the trials admirably and, of course, with a smile.
“Ninety-nine per cent is just me being myself,” he says, before adding that equally, he knows what a privileged position he holds. “On a bad day, I’ll still have a conscious thing in my mind reminding me that what I think of as a bad day is still a very good day in probably 90% of the world’s population’s eyes.
“I’m still racing in Formula One. I’m still living my dream. The way I see it is if I can’t be happy doing this job, which is my dream job, then what’s going to make me happy in life? I will always find a way to find a positive from things.”
Which he had to do from the off after stepping up to the big hitters with Red Bull. Having made his F1 debut for HRT at Silverstone in 2011, he spent two years with Toro Rosso before replacing his countryman Mark Webber at the team in 2014.
His promotion had surprised some but Ricciardo’s debut for Red Bull, a second place in Australia, silenced the doubters. It was some baptism for him, too, when his first podium finish was lost to disqualification after the race due to a fuel flow infringement. As cruel a blow as any driver might encounter.
“I still look back on that weekend with a smile,” he says – with a smile. “In my eyes I did everything I could. To not crumble under the pressure of the home crowd and the first race with the big team. Just to perform well under such pressure was a big pat on the back for myself. And that was a big confidence booster for me knowing that I could live up to that level.”
It seems inconceivable that even he could have taken it so well at the time … “It hurt,” he admits. “But I got the taste of everything that day, it just made me want it even more. It lit the fire inside me and I just wanted to get back on the podium as soon as possible. That was my next target to make up for the disappointment and get that trophy back.”
Which he did with a stunning season. Three wins would follow in 2014 but what really caught the eye was how he put his team-mate, the then world champion, Sebastian Vettel, in the shade. The car, to be fair, did not suit Vettel but Ricciardo’s step up from the midfield was hugely successful and he was revelatory. His style was smoother than Vettel’s and he is bold on the brakes. In China he was simply quicker and the senior partner was told to move over.
It is not just pace. His debut F1 win in Canada involved a great move on Sergio Pérez through turn one, while, with the victory in Hungary, where he chased down Lewis Hamilton to pass him exquisitely round the outside of turn two before passing Fernando Alonso for the lead with only two laps to go, it was clear that behind the grin here was a ruthless pedaller, fully committed. He was similarly uncompromising at the same race this year.
This, too, has been a conscious decision. “Pretty much all the drivers I get on with, at least to say ‘hi’ and have a conversation,” he says. “But when the helmet’s on, you don’t care who it is. You have no sympathy, someone blows an engine in front of you, if it means you gain a position, then you’re smiling.
“It came out last year, my aggressiveness on the track, the overtaking. It’s something I always knew I had in me but for whatever reason I couldn’t really get it out and last year was the turning point. It was time to really make a statement and it felt good doing it and I am happy being that racer.”
Clearly he is not afraid to show it. Something he believes other drivers on the grid could do more of themselves. “Whatever job you do, you have bad days but you know it could be a lot worse. I do see some guys who are probably a little bit, at times, ungrateful. I don’t want to be like that because it is a good life, I get paid to sit in race cars. I don’t want to be the one with the long face.”
