Daniel Ricciardo is Formula 1's rising star. When Mark Webber announced his retirement from the sport last year, the 24 year old was immediately announced as his replacement for Infiniti Red Bull Racing's 2014 season. Earlier this month he placed fourth at the Bahrain Grand Prix and he's looking for more success on the track this weekend in Shanghai.
That's met up with Daniel ahead of Sunday's race to talk about Chinese F1 fans and to find out what he really thinks of team mate Sebastian Vettel...
What’s your first impressions of the Shanghai F1 track?
I came here for the first time in 2006 and it’s pretty good. We’ve got a long straight, I think one of the longest on the calendar, so there's a bit of time to think about what we’re going to do on the weekend. The first hectare is a bit tricky, very technical with very long corners and I think there’s a lot of time to be had or lost there.
Red Bull haven’t been their usual unstoppable force this year, do you think there will be a late push to catch Mercedes?
I hope we’ll give them a push at some point. The gap that they have at the moment is pretty big, so it’s likely to be a later than an earlier push. As long as we give them one at some point I think we’ll be happy enough with that, considering where they are at the moment.
Have you recovered from the disappointment of being disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne?
I’ve moved on but definitely carry a bit of leftover hunger from it, so hopefully I’ll use that to my advantage this weekend.
What’s it like racing with Sebastian Vettel? He seems like a pretty single minded sportsman.
It’s been good. I think the start of the year and our relationship has been good, I think we have a few things in common. We’re both very competitive but at the same time I think we’ve been fair racing together in Malaysia and in Bahrain so it’s been good, I think we’ve both enjoyed the challenge.
There’s lots of talk in the media about quieter car engines. How do you feel about it? Do you think it makes F1 sport less appealing or less sexy?
A lot of people remember Formula 1 cars for their sound, for their noise, you can hear them from miles away and that’s not the case now. I’m sure to a lot of people would have that opinion and for me as a driver yes, it’s a little bit different. There’s also some positives that you can hear a bit more and maybe my hearing will still be good when I’m 50?! I think as long as the cars are still fast and doing what they’re doing, then that’s still important for us.
Some people say that being a racing driver doesn’t require much athleticism. What’s your workout routine like and how do you test your reflexes?
If we’ve got a week of no commitments, we’ll be training six of those seven days, normally two sessions a day. There’s lots of cardio to help us get through hour and a half to two hour races. We do a lot of neck strength for the g-force and a lot of core and lower back stuff, they cop a lot of the load. For reflexes I do a lot of tennis ball stuff. Going back to people’s point of view, I don’t blame them (for thinking that). Watching on TV, you don’t see a lot from inside the car, it looks like we’re just driving and that’s fair enough. You do have to be involved or know the sport a little bit to understand. I can guarantee it’s not as easy as it looks.
What’s your experience of Chinese F1 fans?
I find the Chinese fans seem to know a lot. They’re very passionate and they’ll normally pull out photos that I didn’t even know I had of myself! They normally dig deep and they’ll find stuff of me racing a go-kart many years ago. They do like to understand a lot about the driver and study a lot more than a lot of other fans. They're cool and they give a lot of gifts.
Who do you look up to the most in the world of motorsport?
Growing up Ayrton Senna was a real hero for all us Formula 1 drivers on the grid. Dale Earnhardt was a NASCAR driver, I was a big fan of him and also on two wheels, Valentino Rossi. I could name drop a lot of guys I’ve looked up to.
What car do you drive at home?
In Europe I’m driving an Infiniti thanks to the team, so it’s getting me by.
// Shanghai Grand Prix, 3pm, April 20, Shanghai International Circuit, 2000 Yining Lu, Jiading 上海国际赛车场,伊宁路2000号 (6956 9999)
Photo: GEPA
0 User Comments