F1
Always the maverick, Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo took on the Top Guns of the RAAF.
What happens when you pit the fastest thing on 4 wheels against the fastest thing in the sky? We turned to F1 pilot Daniel Ricciardo and RAAF pilot Flight Lieutenant, Michael Keightley to come up with an answer.
Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, home favourite Ricciardo took the Infiniti Red Bull Racing show car to the RAAF base at Sale to pit it against the astonishing power of an F/A-18 Hornet.
With a top speed of 380kph (Red Bull Racing show car) versus 2000kph (Hornet), Daniel had his work cut out for him. But the Aussie held his own, making a quicker start than the Hornet, but once the Hornet built up speed, no amount of DRS was going to help.
“The craziest part was looking in my mirrors and seeing a Hornet – I’m just used to other Formula One cars behind me,” Daniel said.
“It was very surreal. I definitely felt the pure power of the Hornet and as it passed me I was just hoping that it wasn’t going to blow me off the track. It makes what I do seem low level compared to that!”
“I can’t wait to get on track now. Having a home race is awesome, Albert Park is one of my top five favourite circuits.”
”Having a chance to meet Dan was fantastic,” Flight Lieutenant Keightley said.
“It was interesting to talk about the synergies between our jobs, including the hard work and training we undertake to be able to deliver them.”
