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These are Daniel Ricciardo’s 10 best F1 races
As Aston Martin Red Bull Racing announce Daniel Ricciardo will soon be moving on from the team, we look at his most eye-catching performances from his beginnings in Formula One to the present day.
Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo lights up Formula One with his dynamic style, his intelligent approach to driving and his cheeky smile. According to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing race engineer Simon Rennie, for Ricciardo it's all about the overtaking: "I haven't had a driver who's been so excited about overtaking people for a long time! It's not the qualifying or the race for Ricciardo – they're simply the journey to get to the overtake."
Of course, he’s quite keen on the trophies, too. From his promising debut for Hispania Racing back in 2011, points in his first GP for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2012 and then a first win in 2014 for Red Bull Racing, it's been quite a ride. So fill your shoe with Champagne as we look at Daniel Ricciardo’s 10 greatest F1 performances.
2018 Chinese Grand Prix – Started P6, finished P1
Daniel Ricciardo after his thrilling win at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix
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Christmas came early for Daniel Ricciardo at the Shanghai International Circuit. All his Christmases actually – and a couple of birthdays, too. Ricciardo lives for late overtaking, and with 20 laps to go of the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix, he had five illustrious names lined up in front of him and a horsepower disadvantage cancelled out by fresher tyres. Game on.
When the race went live Ricciardo was in P6. He picked off Kimi Räikkönen first to move up to P5, then was gifted P4 when team-mate Max Verstappen ran wide when tussling with Lewis Hamilton. He had the crowd on their feet with a huge pass on Hamilton (“Sometimes you’ve just got to lick the stamp and send it,” he said afterwards) and then made short work of Sebastian Vettel. Last but definitely not least, he passed Valtteri Bottas right on the edge – both literally and metaphorically. It gave him a sixth F1 victory, but it's the nature of it that will stick in the memory. While his rivals were bumping and barging their way around, carbon fibre flying every which way, Ricciardo’s passing was clinical. He was a man on a mission.
And of course he followed up six weeks later with a famous win in Monaco, too. Fastest in all three practice sessions and breaking the qualifying lap record, Ricciardo had technical issues in the grand prix and nursed his car for 60 laps with only six gears and 25 percent less horsepower than it should've had.
2012 Bahrain Grand Prix – Started P6, finished P15
Ricciardo unleashed his qualifying pace in Bahrain
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In his first full season, Ricciardo finished 15th at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix, so this may seem a strange one to start with – but context is important. In his fourth race for Toro Rosso, he put a sluggish STR7 in sixth place in qualifying, not as a result of traffic or weather but simply from nailing the laps that counted. The team's then technical director, Giorgio Ascanelli, was so impressed he compared the Australian rookie with some of his previous drivers. Given that Ascanelli had been race engineer for Nelson Piquet, Gerhard Berger, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, this made people sit up and notice. The race itself was a nightmare of tyre trouble and strategic mishap – but Dan’s reputation as a demon qualifier was established here.
2014 Canadian Grand Prix – Started P6, finished P1
Canada: Ricciardo claims his first win in F1
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Ricciardo’s debut win came in Canada. It’s remembered primarily as an inherited victory, with both of the dominant Mercedes suffering brake problems on F1’s toughest braking surface – but he had a fair bit to do himself, having started sixth.
Key to his race was a duel with Sergio Pérez, ultimately settled with a good run out of the final chicane and a brave pass into Turns One and Two. He may have got lucky with the victory – but he made his own luck.
2014 British Grand Prix – Started P8, finished P3
Using his head: a clever tyre strategy pays off
© Drew Gibson/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Ricciardo’s trademark strategy over the last few years has been to run long in the middle of the race to give himself a tyre advantage on a short final stint – but he can do it the other way when required. The 2014 British Grand Prix tends to get lost in the signal a little – but it was one of Ricciardo’s most efficient performances. Starting eighth he took advantage of a first-lap red flag to run a short stint on the slower hard tyre, before a long, long medium tyre stint to the flag, moving up through the field as other cars pitted off ahead, and keeping his tyres sufficiently alive to maintain a gap to faster finishers behind. Not flashy in his usual style – but very effective.
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix – Started P4, finished P1
Brilliant overtaking put Daniel on top in Hungary
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The best of Ricciardo’s victories in 2014, involving clever strategy and gutsy overtaking. In many ways, it was the best return from the archetypal Ricciardo strategy: long middle stint, short, fiery burst at the end. Even with a late-race rubber advantage, he still had his work cut-out on a circuit that has notoriously few overtaking opportunities, and with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso still to pass, neither of whom give places – or trophies – away for free, but Ricciardo wasn’t taking no for an answer.
2014 Belgian Grand Prix – Started P5, finished P1
Big win: Daniel won at Spa, F1's toughest circuit
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Ricciardo took back-to-back wins around the 2014 summer break, doubling up after Hungary with victory at Spa. He has Nico Rosberg to thank for this one: clipping the rear-left wheel of team-mate Lewis Hamilton on lap two set in motion a train of events that ruined Mercedes's whole day. Ricciardo still had the small matter of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and team-mate Sebastian Vettel to pass on track. He dispatched Alonso on the Kemmel straight in short order and harried team-mate Vettel until the latter ran wide. This was a different sort of victory for Ricciardo: in the lead before the halfway mark, it was his to lose. He didn’t get twitchy, far from it – the Australian pressed hard, built a lead over his team-mate and kept his tyres fresh enough to see off an end-of-race threat from a recovering Rosberg. It was clinical.
2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Started P19, finished P4
Daniel Ricciardo makes overtaking look easy
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Ricciardo had a stunning 2014 with three victories, but he saved his best race for last – which is a shame as no-one remembers it, given attention was firmly turned to the title battle at the other end of the grid. Ricciardo originally qualified fifth – one place and six-10ths ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Their front wings failed parc fermé scrutineering and their qualifying times were rubbed off. The cars were allowed to start, however, and Ricciardo signed-off his first RBR campaign in fine style: charging through the field, making overtaking look easy on a circuit where it really isn’t. He also ticked an item off his personal bucket list by overtaking two cars in the same corner.
2016 Monaco Grand Prix – Started P1, finished P2
The one that got away: Monaco 2016
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Ricciardo has a professed love for street racing and the Monaco Grand Prix is the world’s most famous street race, so his favourite circuit is… Macao. But as F1 doesn’t go there, he’s also pretty keen on Monaco. His two junior races in FR3.5 both yielded victories and it’s a little surprising he hasn’t won the main event yet. In 2016 he came just about as close as it’s possible to come. He took pole position – his first, and the only pole of the hybrid era for the team that had 57 in the previous five years – and nailed the start, looking odds on for victory, only to cede the lead to Lewis Hamilton after a botched pitstop, called into the box before the crew were ready with tyres.
2016 Malaysian Grand Prix – Started P4, finished P1
Daniel's trademark shoey on the podium in Malaysia
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Teams always get twitchy when team-mates race wheel-to-wheel but Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were exemplary; keeping it clean, avoiding touching and shaking hands at the flag. With Hamilton’s engine exploding and Rosberg having a first-lap spin and later a 10-second penalty, the dry statistics suggest Ricciardo won this one by default – but holding off the attentions of Verstappen at full charge isn’t straightforward. In fact, it’s a feat that looks more impressive with every race Verstappen completes.
2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Started P10, finished P1
Crashes and a cool head put Daniel on top in Baku
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Mercedes's dominance has been frustrating for Ricciardo. He’s won his five victories when other cars, for a variety of reasons, have fallen by the wayside, but that's not to say that the victories weren’t deserved. Ricciardo is skilled at getting himself in the right place to take his chances: whether it's a quick overtake or a later victory. The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is a case in point.
Ricciardo won the lottery in Baku. A crash in qualifying had left him 10th on the grid, and then he had an early pitstop to clear a blocked brake duct. On lap six of 51 he emerged from the pits in P17. From there everything went right: a red flag, a moment of madness from Sebastian Vettel and a bizarre bodywork failure for Lewis Hamilton. It left Ricciardo all on his own in P1 – but had he crossed the line in P3 it would still have been one of the great drives: fast when it needed to be, filled with clinical overtaking moves, and free of the sort of risks that saw most of the field clattering the barriers or each other at one point or another.
