Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo (born 1 July 1989 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian racing driver who is currently competing in Formula One for Infiniti Red Bull Racing. He won the British Formula Three Championship in 2009. After Mark Webber announced his retirement from Formula 1, Ricciardo was confirmed as his replacement at Infiniti Red Bull Racing for 2014. His teammate is German Sebastian Vettel, the 2010–2013 world champion.

Ricciardo pronounces his name 'Ricardo' instead of the Italian pronunciation 'Ri-char-do', saying that is how his family pronounces it.

Formula Ford and Formula BMW
Ricciardo started karting at the age of nine and entered numerous karting events since. In 2005, he entered the Western Australian Formula Ford championship driving a 15-year-old Van Diemen, finishing eighth by season's end. Towards the end of the season Ricciardo took a leased 13-year-old Van Diemen across to Sandown Raceway in Melbourne to compete at the national Formula Ford series but his ageing car was uncompetitive as he finished sixteenth, seventeenth and retired during the weekend's three races. The following year, however, he won a scholarship into the Formula BMW Asian championship with Eurasia Motorsport. During his début season, Ricciardo took two victories (both at Bira) and also achieved a pole position at Zhuhai. He finished third in the Drivers' Championship with 231 points, 59 points behind the champion Earl Bamber.

In August that year, he was given an outing with Motaworld Racing to race one of their Formula BMW cars at the eighth meeting of the British championship. Despite retiring from the first race, Ricciardo recovered to finish eighth in the second race and took three championship points in his only entry in the British championship. At the end of the year, he entered the Formula BMW World Final with Fortec Motorsport where he finished in fifth position, fourteen seconds off winner Christian Vietoris.

Formula Renault
2007 saw the Australian switch categories to Formula Renault with RP Motorsport, entering the European and Italian championships of the category, although mainly focused on the latter series as he entered fourteen races to the four entries he took in the European championship. He finished the year seventh in the Italian series with 196 points and scoring a single podium at Valencia but failed to score a point in his handful of starts in the European races.

The Australian stayed in Formula Renault for a second year in 2008, entering the European and Western European championships. By the end of the year, the young driver took his first European title in the Western European Cup and finished second in the Eurocup to Finn Valtteri Bottas.

Formula Three
During the mid-part of the 2008 season, Ricciardo made his Formula Three début at the Nürburgring, entering SG Formula's Formula 3 Euro Series team. Despite only a short amount of experience in the car the Australian qualified in eighth for the first race which later converted into sixth in the race after James Jakes and Christian Vietoris stalled on the grid.

Ricciardo moved to the British Formula Three Championship for the 2009 season driving for Carlin Motorsport. He also made his debut in the 3.5-litre World Series by Renault championship, racing alongside Charles Pic at Tech 1 Racing for the rounds at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal. He retired from the first race, before finishing fifteenth in the second. When he returned to Formula Three, he extended his championship lead to 45 points before returning to the Portuguese circuit. A win and a third in the British-registered cars, gave him an unassailable 64-point lead over Renger van der Zande with just 42 available. This meant that Ricciardo became the first Australian driver since David Brabham in 1989 to win the British Formula Three title. Just like Brabham, Ricciardo won the title in a car powered by a Volkswagen engine. Ricciardo finished the season on a high, taking both pole positions for the final round of the series, at Brands Hatch. He won the first race by fifteen seconds, and finished fourth (third in British-registered cars as Marcus Ericsson was running in the Invitational Class) in the season-ending race. His championship winning margin was 87 points as Walter Grubmüller overhauled his teammate van der Zande, who was absent from the weekend due to a conflicting Euroseries race in Barcelona.

Ricciardo continued his partnership with Carlin, by heading to the Macau Grand Prix with the team. Ricciardo quickly gathered pace at the circuit, being second fastest (and fastest rookie) behind Marcus Ericsson in first qualifying, before winding up in fifth place in second qualifying, setting the grid for the qualifying race. Following a sixth place in the qualifying race, Ricciardo was forced to retire on the first lap of the main race after hitting a wall at San Francisco. He continued with a puncture up the hill before hitting the wall at the Solitude Esses, and caused a circuit-blocking incident, which also took out seven of his rivals.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series
On 30 October 2009, Ricciardo was signed by Tech 1 to compete in the 2010 season. He had competed with the team at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal in 2009, and was the teammate to Brendon Hartley, another driver who drove for Tech 1 over the season.

Following a minor incident during a mountain bike exercise, Ricciardo was forced to miss the second test of the 2010 season, but went on to take pole position for both races at the season-opening round of the 2010 season in Alcañiz, Spain. He finished third and second in the races respectively, to leave himself at the head of the championship standings. Two weeks later, at the Spa Francorchamps circuit, Ricciardo was relegated to last on the grid after being deemed to have hindered the laps of other drivers. In the next two races he finished 13th and fifth respectively – coming 2nd in the latter until many of the front-runners were given penalties for infringing the parc ferme rules before the race. One week later, in Monte Carlo, Ricciardo secured his third pole position of the season, finishing three tenths of a second ahead of championship rival Stefano Coletti. He secured his first win at the following race, one place ahead of Coletti. The Australian went on to secure two more wins at the Hungaroring and at Hockenheim in commanding fashion. Following Ricciardo's sixth pole from 12 races, Tech 1 team boss, Simon Abadie, praised his driver's efforts greatly, saying "I am happy, and happy for Daniel because six poles in 12 races is good going," and later stated his team's ambitions for success, by telling Autosport correspondent Peter Mills, "I really hopes Daniel wins the championship."

At the first race at the Silverstone circuit, Ricciardo was involved in a spectacular incident with pole-sitter Jon Lancaster, in which the Australian was sent into a barrel roll, eventually landing on his wheels. The crash saw the end of his race, with teammate Jean-Éric Vergne becoming the eventual winner, following disqualifications. Securing pole for the second race of the weekend, Ricciardo spent much of the race leading the pack by upwards of three seconds. However, braking issues in the second half of the event meant that, on the final lap, championship-rival Esteban Guerrieri was able to pass the Tech 1 racer.

Going into the final round of the season, Ricciardo sat just three points behind championship leader Mikhail Aleshin and 13 ahead of third-place man Esteban Guerrieri. Managing his 8th pole of the season, the Australian managed a lights-to-flag victory, setting the fastest lap and placing himself equal first with one race remaining. After securing second place on the grid for the second race of the weekend, Ricciardo managed to hold position until the pit stops, where he was successfully 'jumped' by two of his rivals, including teammate Vergne. With only two laps left in the race and struggling for pace, the Australian was overtaken by championship rival Aleshin. Finishing in that order, Ricciardo failed to secure the title in his debut year, losing out to Mikhail Aleshin by only two points.

In 2011 Ricciardo raced for ISR Racing prior to his HRT call-up.

Formula One


Ricciardo made his track debut at the wheel of a Formula One car, when he tested for Red Bull Racing at the young drivers test at Circuito de Jerez over three days, from 1–3 December 2009. On the final day of testing he clocked the fastest time of the test by over a second. This placed him as the only driver to go into the 1:17 bracket. Red Bull Racing's team manager Christian Horner suggested that Ricciardo may replace his 2010 World Series teammate Hartley as the team's test and reserve driver. As it turned out, Ricciardo and Hartley were to share test and reserve duties for both Red Bull, and sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso until the latter was removed from the Red Bull Junior team.

On 11 November 2010, Ricciardo was confirmed as the single driver to represent Red Bull Racing at the end-of-season young drivers test at the Yas Marina Circuit, on 16–17 November. At the announcement, he commented, "I can't wait to get another crack at driving Red Bull Racing's amazing Formula One car." Ricciardo continued to show his one-lap prowess and dominated the event. With his fastest lap being 1.3 seconds faster than World Champion Sebastian Vettel's qualifying lap the Saturday before. Days after completing this session Ricciardo was confirmed as Toro Rosso's test and reserve driver for the season, and would take part in the first free practice session of each race weekend. Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal stated that "having a hungry youngster on the books will keep our current driver pairing nice and sharp", referring to then Toro Rosso drivers Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi. Ricciardo would also make an appearance in pre-season testing for the 2011 Formula One season, driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso.

At the 2011 Australian Grand Prix Ricciardo was placed 16th on the timesheets after opening practice, just one-tenth slower than his experienced Toro Rosso team mate Sebastian Buemi. The Australian managed to later finish eighth in practice for the wet Turkish Grand Prix Friday practice one session, a place ahead of competitor Buemi.

HRT (2011)
On 30 June 2011, Ricciardo signed for Hispania Racing, replacing Narain Karthikeyan for all the remaining races of the 2011 season except the Indian Grand Prix, to allow Karthikeyan to race at his home Grand Prix. Ricciardo made his Grand Prix debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

However, on 22 October 2011, a few days before the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, the race where Narain Karthikeyan was due to gain back his seat for his home race, HRT F1 announced that Vitantonio Liuzzi made way for Karthikeyan, allowing Ricciardo to race in India and extend his learning curve that Red Bull Racing paid the struggling Spanish team to do, as well as allowing Karthikeyan to race in front of his home fans. In Abu Dhabi, Ricciardo retired with mechanical problems after starting 20th on the grid and in the final race at the, Ricciardo finished 20th after starting 22nd on the grid.

Toro Rosso (2012–2013)
On 14 December 2011, it was confirmed that Ricciardo would drive for the Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2012 season, alongside Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne.



At the on 18 March 2012, Ricciardo managed to overtake his teammate Vergne late on the last lap to come home in ninth place, securing his first two World Championship points.

In wet conditions in Malaysia he finished 12th, after having been first to switch to slick tyres. In Bahrain he qualified sixth, but dropped back during the race and finished 15th. In the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix he suffered his only retirement of the season, after having started from 15th position.

On 31 October 2012, Toro Rosso announced the re-signing of Ricciardo for the 2013 season.

Infiniti Red Bull (2014)
On 2 September 2013 Ricciardo was revealed as the replacement for Mark Webber at Infiniti Red Bull Racing live on the Austrian television channel Servus TV. There he would partner with Sebastian Vettel, who is the current four-time world champion.

In the first race of the season, the, Ricciardo qualified in second place and was only beaten to pole by Lewis Hamilton's final lap of the session. He held on to his second place, despite pressure from rookie Kevin Magnussen in the final laps. His second place finish would have been the first time an Australian had made the podium in their home race, since the race became part of the World Championship. However, his car was found to be in violation of the 100 kilograms per hour fuel flow rate limit imposed by the FIA and was thus disqualified. Infiniti Red Bull Racing, who do not believe the car's fuel flow rate was in violation of the rules, have filed a formal appeal, which was heard on 14 April. The result was ultimately upheld by the International Court of Appeal. Ricciardo failed to finish in the, but managed to record his first points of the 2014 season at the , where he finished fourth, despite starting the race in 13th position.

Career summary
* Season in progress.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results
(key) † – As Ricciardo was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) $†$ Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

* Season in progress.