Daniel Ricciardo biography
Born: 1st July 1989
Birthplace: Perth, Australia
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HRT: 2011
Toro Rosso: 2012-13
Red Bull: 2014-
Career stats
Daniel Ricciardo rose through the ranks of Formula One through Red Bull’s young driver initiative. He was promoted to their F1 squad in 2014 and won three races in his rookie year.
Ricciardo’s father was born in Sicily but moved to Australia when he was eight years old. “I think Europe at the time was a bit difficult and dark,” Ricciardo explained in 2017. “It was difficult to get ahead, and I think they just thought Australia was a place of opportunity.”
However, Ricciardo returned to Europe in order to advance in the motor racing world. In 2009, he won the British F3 title and advanced to Formula Renault 3.5 the following year. He finished two points behind champion Mikhail Aleshin when his car was flipped over at Silverstone late in the season.
Ricciardo participated in Red Bull’s post-season rookie test that year and again in 2010. He stayed in Formula Renault 3.5 for 2011, but he had to balance it with greater F1 obligations. This included taking part in Red Bull’s sister squad Toro Rosso’s Friday initial practise sessions.
HRT
2011
Ricciardo was granted the opportunity to make his Formula One debut with struggling back-of-the-grid team HRT at the British Grand Prix. In their race lineup, he replaced Narain Karthikeyan.
Ricciardo stayed with the team for the rest of the season, gradually improving and doing well against his more experienced teammates. This won him a spot on Toro Rosso’s 2012 race team.
Toro Rosso
2012
Ricciardo was eager to capitalise on the STR7’s point-scoring potential, finishing tenth in his home race in Melbourne. But it took 11 races for him to return to the points, as Toro Rosso found themselves at the back of a crowded midfield.
Ricciardo became a consistent point contender in the second half of the season after the arrival of James Key to replace technical director Giorgio Ascanelli. In Korea, a gearbox issue placed him to 21st on the grid, but he finished tenth and would have been higher if a technical mistake hadn’t pushed him behind teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.
2013
In their second season together, Ricciardo was often faster than Vergne, particularly in qualifying, when he held a considerable edge. However, the car was only marginally more competitive than its predecessor, and the pair rarely advanced beyond the lowest reaches of the points.
Despite this, when Mark Webber announced his retirement from Formula One in 2014, Red Bull chose Ricciardo to replace him.
Red Bull
2014
Ricciardo joined the reigning champions just as their grip on the title was slipping: the RB10 was obviously second best to Mercedes’ dominating W05.
But it was capable of winning races, at least in Ricciardo’s hands. To many people’s amazement, it was the fresh member to the team, not the current four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who took Red Bull’s three victories that year.
The season had started on a sad note, with Ricciardo’s effort to second place in Australia rewarded only with a disqualification for a technical infraction. In Canada, though, both Mercedes broke down, and Ricciardo took advantage, masterfully passing Sergio Perez’s Force India around the outside on his way to his first victory.
The second, in Hungary, was more fortunate, thanks to a well-timed Safety Car period. Then, in Belgium, he was once again the best placed driver to take advantage of problems at Mercedes, this time after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided.
Ricciardo followed up both notable victories with a string of solid points finishes, finishing third overall. With Vettel moving on to Ferrari, he became the de facto team captain at Red Bull.
2015
Early in Ricciardo’s second season at Red Bull, it became evident that his 2014 victories would not be repeated. Renault came at the opening race of the season with continuous ‘drive-ability’ issues and low reliability, despite hard work in the off-season to correct their engine difficulties. Ricciardo got off to a good start in Melbourne, but he couldn’t stop a slew of opponents from past him.
Ricciardo endured the brunt of the team’s troubles throughout the season, and being the only driver to run their improved engine late in the season was no advantage: it earned him another grid penalty in exchange for an engine that gave limited performance benefits.
He did, however, have the distinction of being one of the few drivers to overtake a Mercedes on track during the year, taking advantage of a wet track at the Circuit of the Americas to surprise Hamilton. He also battled the silver cars at the Hungaroring, but came out on the losing end after colliding with both, dropping to third position at the finish.
This was one of only two visits to the podium. The other came in Singapore, where Ricciardo believes his car could have challenged Vettel’s race-winning Ferrari if not for two premature Safety Car stints. He finished second.
2016
In 2016, when Red Bull was back in race-winning form, there were more squandered opportunities. One came in Spain, where, after leading early on, a poor strategy decision knocked Ricciardo off the podium.
The fact that the victory fell to his new teammate, Max Verstappen, made the setback much more difficult to swallow. Worse was to come in Monaco, when Ricciardo rocketed to pole position and looked set to win until a sloppy pit stop placed him behind Lewis Hamilton.
Victory finally came his way at Sepang, ironically at the expense of Hamilton, who had engine failure. He finished third in the championship behind the Mercedes drivers thanks to a solid second half of the season, but Verstappen was on the rise.
2017
Ferrari improved their game in 2017, relegating Red Bull to third position once more, hence Ricciardo’s fifth-place finish was realistically the best result available. With four races remaining, he was a solid fourth in the standings, but three technical failures in the final four rounds allowed Raikkonen to nip him to fourth.
While Verstappen finished the year brilliantly, winning two of the final six races, Ricciardo was a consistent podium candidate. Despite finishing as low as 17th at one stage in the race, he prevailed in a dramatic race on the streets of Baku.
2018
While Verstappen had a rocky start to his second full year at Red Bull, Ricciardo was on fire. He won two of the first six races, avenging his lost Monaco victory two years earlier, and appeared to be a title candidate.
It didn’t last, as his faith in the team was shaken by a collision with Verstappen in Azerbaijan, which he believed the team did too little to prevent. Verstappen’s contract with the team had already been renewed, while Ricciardo’s future remained uncertain.
2019
Ricciardo’s move to Red Bull did not pan out. The team that finished fourth in 2018 has dropped to fifth, trailing engine customers McLaren. Meanwhile, Red Bull, which switched to Honda power, won three races again this season.
The best of the sparse pickings for Ricciardo came at Monza, where he guided teammate Nico Hulkenberg to fourth and fifth place, the team’s best finish of the season. Elsewhere, he was penalised in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix for an MGU-K violation, and both cars were thrown out of the Japanese Grand Prix because their braking system did not comply with the rules.
2020
The Covid-19 epidemic delayed the start of the season, forcing Ricciardo to wait to see if Renault’s new car was an improvement. But he couldn’t wait to make a decision about his future. When Vettel’s retirement from Ferrari was announced, Ricciardo acted quickly, and despite the fact that there was no way for him to join the Scuderia, he accepted the opportunity to take over from Vettel’s replacement Carlos Sainz Jr at McLaren in 2021.
2021
The highlight of Ricciardo’s debut season with his new team came at Monza, where he finished third in the sprint race and then led a team one-two to deliver McLaren’s first victory since 2012. However, his transfer to the Woking-based squad was frequently connected with adversity.
Despite completing in the top 10 of 13 grands prix out of 22, Ricciardo was easily outpaced by teammate Lando Norris, who finished nearly twice as many grands prix in the top five. He publicly admitted to struggling to adjust to his new car, but vowed to approach year two and the new regulations with a fresh perspective.
2022
Ricciardo knew going into the second season of a three-year contract that he needed to get to know Norris and the peculiarities of McLaren’s vehicles in order to establish himself properly at the team.
However, a change in F1’s technical regulations pushed McLaren down the order, exacerbating the gap between the team’s two drivers. Ricciardo finished only seven races in the points, with a single top-five finish in Singapore, and accounted for only 23% of McLaren’s total points.
His poor performance dropped McLaren to fourth in the constructors’ rankings, prompting the team to try to pull Ricciardo out of his contract a year early. They were successful, and he was replaced in 2023 by Formula 2 winner Oscar Piastri. With his F1 career in jeopardy, Ricciardo found solace by returning to Red Bull as one of their backup drivers.
Net worth
According to publications such as formulapedia, Daniel Ricciardo’s net worth is projected to be $96 million. Ricciardo’s annual compensation is estimated to exceed $15 million, and he now ranks fifth among the world’s top paid F1 drivers.
Records and Achievements:
* Won the Australian CIK Championship Series – Intercontinental A in 2005;
* Won the Formula Renault 2.0 WEC in 2008;
* Won the British Formula 3 Championship in 2009;
* Won the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in 2014;
* Won the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award in 2015;
* Has completed 32 podiums, 3 pole positions, and made 16 fastest laps in Formula One; *
