Daniel Ricciardo recalls how a close friend warned him during his time at Red Bull to control his ego as his success in F1 was going to his head.
After two seasons with junior team Toro Rosso, Ricciardo joined the Red Bull Racing team in 2014, where that season he earned the distinction of being the only non-Mercedes race winner, winning three of between them in Canada, Hungary and Belgium, as well as beating Red Bull’s four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel on the other side of the garage.
However, Ricciardo admitted that from there he started to become “a little weird” as success was going to his head, leading a close friend to tell him frankly in 2015 in Austin, where the United States Grand Prix was taking place.
Ricciardo went on to score four more wins with Red Bull, leaving the team after 2018 and returning to the fold in 2023. But the fairy tale return to Red Bull Racing did not happen, with Ricciardo being dropped from the team junior RB F1 after the Singapore Grand Prix.
The door has been left ajar for Ricciardo to remain in the Red Bull Racing pool, but it is up to him to make that decision.
Asked about the first setback he experienced at Red Bull, Ricciardo replied: “In 2015. It was actually in Austin.”
“So yeah, that was probably when I started to make a name for myself in the sport and win a few races. I was in my twenties and you think you’re… I don’t want to go as far as to say that you think you’re invincible, but you’re like, ‘Well, I’m really in great shape right now.’
“And yeah, I remember I was like, probably a little weird, in terms of pushing myself and probably a little arrogant, maybe.”
“And someone close to me at the time, a friend, set me straight. Literally. I remember him saying to me, ‘I’ve seen a change in the last few weeks and I don’t I don’t like it and I just want you to be aware of it because I don’t think it’s the real you So make sure it doesn’t take over and you don’t start affecting the people around you. ‘.”
“It all affected me a bit. As a close friend, he wanted to be honest with me and tell me that he didn’t want to leave without telling me what he was seeing.”
“It was pretty heavy. Because sometimes you go on living and you don’t realize, I don’t know, if you just have your head down and you’re just looking ahead.”
“I respect… He’s still a close friend and so I was like, ‘Yeah, I just need to keep my feet on the ground a little bit’.”
