March 4, 2026 • 38 mins
For much of the 2010s and the first half of the 2020s, Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo was the belle of the ball in Formula 1. Initially beloved for his cheeky personality and mesmerizing driving style, he eventually started to build a larger empire for himself that included a sought-after merch line, an F1-inspired Hulu pilot, and a number of high-profile brand partnerships. However, while Ricciardo’s celebrity profile was blossoming, his on-track performance was suffering, and over the years, he eventually went from being a World Drivers’ Championship contender to being unceremoniously dumped mid-season by a lesser team.
But is the tale of Daniel Ricciardo a success story centered on a driver who got nearly everything out of the sport, a cautionary tale of what happens when the quest for fame overtakes the need to perform well in a high-stakes environment, or a combination of both?
With a little help from Two Girls 1 Formula co-creator Nicole Sievers, we’re diving into what we can learn from the chaotic career of the man known as the Honey Badger.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Formula one has been called many things over the years.
The pinnacle of motor sports, a global spectacle, the place
for cutting edge engineering, a sandbox for rich, emotionally unregulated
adrenaline junkies with daddy issues, and a few mommy issues
sprinkled in.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
To US sex servicing.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
But beyond discussions of power units in Oversteer, there are
so many other subcultures, niches, and communities that make up
the sport. I'm Lily Hermann, creator of the longtime Formula
one culture newsletter Engine Failure, and a longtime writer. You
may also recognize my voice from season one of Choosing
Sides f one, where I took listeners and daily show
co host Michael Costa through the history of the sport,
the teams and the drivers on the grid at the time.
(00:43):
But now I'm here with the old Choosing Sides crew
producer Johai Metal and executive producer Max Miller launching a
new endeavor, Welcome to No Grip, a Formula one culture
podcast that'll take you through this sport's under explored mishap,
scandals and sagas, both on and off track. In the
coming episodes, we'll discussed the twenty twenty three schism I
dubbed wag agedin the nineteen eighty two drivers strike that
(01:04):
led to almost an entire grid of racers being stuffed
into a South African hotel ballroom. Bernie Eclestone, he was upset,
he was angry, He fired both of his drivers and
the rapidly expanding subgenre of Formula one romance novels that's
popped up in traditional publishing over the past four years.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The adrenaline from the podium hadn't faded, It had just
curdled into something sharper, more dangerous.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
He still smelled of podium, champagne and expensive friction. Needless
to say, I have thoughts. But for our first episode,
we're kicking off our season and the Formula one season
by heading to the land down Under. Well, Nicole, thank
you for doing this.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's super great and nothing I love more than to
talk about my favorite person on.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Earth, Daniel Ricardo.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
The Australian Grand Prix is coming up this weekend, kicking
off a new season that's bringing a slew of new
regulations as well as a new team to the grid.
But there are also some bigger conversations lurking as we
head to the Southern Hemisphere, chiefly around what it takes
to win a championship these days and how drivers balance
the demands of the sport and burgeoning global celebrity. We
currently have one assie on the grid, Oscar Piastre, who
(02:10):
was third for the World Drivers Championship last year. Despite
spending much of the season comfortably in the lead, Oscar
came up short behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who
eventually won the title. It became an increasingly bitter battle
as McLaren's top brass struggled to figure out how to
prioritize both of their drivers. Europe is the birthplace of
Formula One, but Australia has long produced some of the
(02:30):
sport's best and most interesting drivers. You've got three time
World Drivers Champion Jack Grabham, who eventually found it a
successful racing team and remains the only Formula One driver
to have won the title in a car he built.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
It's Jack Brabham in Car five, dragging the last an
zupa from his all Australian redcoat Brabham Special.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Then, of course there's Mark Webber, a spirited driver known
in the twenty and twenty tens for his share of
big moves on the track and memorable interview and on
board moments.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Oh kids, didn't kids enough experience still the job that they.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
But when it comes to Australia's recent history in the sport,
no driver looms as large as Daniel Ricardo, a fan
favorite and a smiley staple of the grid through much
of the twenty tens and into the early twenty twenties. However,
he was unceremoniously dumped from his final F one team
before the end of the twenty twenty four season, and
in fall of twenty twenty five he announced his retirement
from motorsport. In general, people have a lot of opinions
(03:23):
about Daniel Riccardo. The way some people talk about him,
you'd think he has the charisma of Jesus and the
athleticism of Lebron James. Others think he's overrated and spent
way too much of his time worrying about mainstream celebrity
and off track endeavors. But as we see more and
more racers taking a Danny rick Esque approach to their
wheelings and dealings in the sport and outside of it,
it's time to look back on one of the most
(03:44):
popular contemporary F one drivers. Today, I am joined by
Chief Ricardo Nicole Severs, one half of the duo behind
the podcast two Girls One Formula Nicole, We're doing it.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Oh my god, long time coming.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I'm absolutely putting chiefer Cardo on my LinkedIn after this,
by the way, so thank you for that title.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Great Now I'm excited you're here. I thought of this
episode and then I said, no one else can be
the guest other than Nicole.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I truly have so many thoughts about this man. He
really takes up a lot of brain space for me.
Even though now he's seemingly a wall all of the time,
I'm thinking about him every single day regardless.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
First and foremost, can you just situate everyone, when did
you first learn about Daniel Riccardo and when did you
become a stan of this man?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I actually vividly remember the moment I became a Daniel
Ricardo fan. One of my ex partners was a big
Formula one fan. I had never heard of this sport
ever in my entire life, but he was just watching
one of the driver press briefings and Danny just had
the most silly demeanor and the most personality of any
(04:58):
one of the drivers up there, and.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I said, you know what that really speaks to me.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That is someone who I can see myself rallying behind
everyone else up there is taking themselves way too seriously.
And obviously we might get into this later, but is
that a pro or con of Danny's downfall? But I
truly was just like, Yeah, that's someone that I want
to be a fan of. I really resonate with his
personality and I think, you know, I need someone to root.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
For and get behind.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
And this was twenty fifteen, so it's been you know,
just over ten years now that I've been following Danny's
journey on the grid and off the grid.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Okay, so let's take a step back then, Yes, yo hi,
Actually yo hi, When did you first pay attention to
Daniel Ricardo?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Just just for perspective, I.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Mean, yeah, I didn't want to sound condescending, but I
feel an incredible condescension towards both of you, because the
real Danny Rick was before the Drive to Survive era.
I mean, when Drive to Survive started, he was past
his prime. Ooh, that's not Danny, right.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Take.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I'm sad that that's what we remember him for.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Twenty fifteen was not drive to survive Era one fifteen
not yet.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, twenty eighteen was the season they filmed for Season one.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, so I had a little bit pre drive to
survive thee OHI so take a little bit of that
condescension back.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Okay, thank you, okay, okay, So we are going to
rewind to July second, nineteen eighty nine, Daniel Joseph Riccardo
enters the world. Born in Perth in Western Australia, to
Joe and Grace Ricardo, he becomes interested in motorsports at
a very young age, watching his dad race at a
nearby circuit. He begins karting officially at age nine, eventually
(06:38):
races all over the country. At sixteen, he wins the
Australian Karting Championship and in a very fun twist, part
of his victory prize was a pass to the two
thousand and six Australian Grand Prix, and he very fondly
recalls chatting with the Italian F one driver Jarno Trully
and Miss Universe two thousand and four Jennifer Hawkins, If
(06:58):
you could choose what time period to be born and
what sex to be what would you choose and why
I'd have to say that this time period because we
have as much freedom as we want. And I choose
the sex of Fema because femas have a let us say,
in today's society. I do not know Jennifer Hawkins's work,
but good for her and good for him. So he
was very excited as a teenage boy about this. However,
(07:19):
I think like many drivers who are not based, particularly
in Europe, he realizes that there's a real ceiling to
his racing career if he stays in Australia. So he
does race a little bit in Asia, slithers over to Europe,
starts making his way through the junior ranks, and most notably,
I would argue probably the most consequential decision of his
entire career is that in two thousand and seven he
signs up to be part of the junior program at
(07:43):
Red Bull.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Duntandan. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
The junior program at Red Bull is a cutthroat place.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
It is. It is.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
It's very similar to like a K pop boot camp.
Those people are going in and they're being put to
work and being.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Chewed up and spit out.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Obviously, we have helmet Marco at the helm of the
Red Bull Junior Team, who's really bringing in this talent?
And at this point we have seen a handful of
drivers go through this program and just really not be
able to live up to the standards that Christian Horner
(08:26):
rip former team principal, and.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I also not real life rip F one grid rip.
He's still alive to our.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Knowledge, basically sorry, yeah, yeah, anyway, him and Helmet Marco
kind of like Bond villains, taking these young men with
F one dreams and really just making them work for
their CEE on the team. Not that everyone doesn't have
to work for their ce but I feel like Red
Bull really really makes you work for it.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
The Red Bull Junior program is very into who is
going to be the number one boy?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Right like that That's the whole thing, one hundred percent,
that's the vibe.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, you have to go through the gauntlet of like
Helmet Marco talking about you when you're like fifteen years
old to the press, and Christian Holland generally being a
shit stir and then who you know, if they don't
to you up, spit you out, you may make it
to potentially be.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You may on a team some of you may die,
and that is just a chance I'm willing to take exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Like that's how I'm at Marco.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, So Daniel Ricardo does, in fact have success despite
the cutthroat nature of this program. He becomes a test
driver for the Red Bull F one team. In two
thousand and nine, he's a test and reserve driver for
the sister team Slash B Team Slash. They call it
any number of things to get around the fact that
Red Bull owns two F one teams, Toro Rosso, which
has gone through twenty seven different name changes over the years.
(09:45):
This is by twenty eleven and Franz Toast, who was
then the Toro Rosso team principle at the time, said
this is a direct quote. Having a hungry youngster on
the books will keep our current driver pairing nice and sharp.
So Daniel had somehow distant himself in this Den of
Sin Slash, Ocean of Sharks or whatever. The you know
(10:06):
quote is getting all my metaphors mixed up. This is
actually where I want to hear yo Hia's opinion, because
when I look at old photos and videos of Daniel
Ricardo at this point, right he's a teenager still and
in some cases early twenties, depending on this kind of
late twenty's, early twenty tens era, he's a little awkward,
like still charming, but a little awkward, hasn't quite grown
into his eventual kind of vibe looks, et cetera. Which
(10:31):
totally fine, but like, I don't know, he hasn't quite
gotten it yet. But I see what everyone's going to see.
So YOHI yeah, Like what was this guy like back
in the very early days when he arrived on the scene.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, he was promoted to Red Bull. He was a
toro also, but then he was promoted to Red Bull.
At twenty fourteen, he was paired with Vedol, and Vedel
was four time world champion, and the expectation was that
basically this rookie, you know, the intern essentially was going
to come and he would be like nobody next to Vettel,
(11:05):
and he slayed Vettel. It was embarrassing to watch for Vettel,
and Daniel Ricardo was like very aggressive. I think he
actually won a few races in that season. Yeah, it
was a boring season sort of dominated by Mercedes, and
he was the only one to actually take a few
wins from Mercedes, and he would he would have these
(11:27):
passes that we would associate these days with Max Verstappen
sending it like crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Side by side with Sebastian Metal Down's almost a second
chicade on the inside, goes Tanya Riccardo. Riccardo takes the place.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Brilliant move.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
So at that time I wasn't thinking of his goofiness
or anything like that. He just seemed like a killer
of a driver. It's almost almost weird to see his
smile and his demeanor after seeing his driving style, which
is very aggressive, very aggressive.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
What does champagne out of a sweaty race boot taste
like delicious?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Scrumpcious?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That was my impression. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it went
up from there.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Ooh, a shot fired.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
This sort of feels like a red table talk between
you know, high and I like we have got opposite
ends of the spectrum here and.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I'm just like in the middle and trying to keep
the between then two okay, So yeah, so Daniel to
Rosso red Bull. He does have some very high highs,
but also some very low lows. He does finish third
in the World Drivers' Championship on two separate occasions. He
wins seven races as part of the Red Bull juggernaut,
but he also has to deal with as we've been describing,
(12:36):
he's very intense internal politics and all this other bs
that is very much a hallmark of the Red Bull team.
It seems like a team too, where yes, they're always
going to be drivers pitted against each other in various
parts of the sport, but it goes beyond the usual
rivalries and the usual scuffles, and there's ongoing nonsense from
the leadership of this team as well. What I find
(12:56):
interesting about this time, but particularly towards the end of
dans time at Red Bull, is that he gets a
big break. In the mid twenty tens, Liberty Media buys
the Formula one brand and as part of this big
overhaul plan that they're doing to really bring new fans
to the sport and new people to the sport, they say,
we're going to start a new docu series called Drive
to Survive, where we get unfettered access to the paddock
(13:19):
and the drivers and the team principles and really show
everyone a different side of this sport, particularly in places
like the US where F one is not that popular.
And I have long said that has is the team
protagonist in the early seasons of Drive to Survive, but
Daniel Riccardo very very quickly becomes the driver protagonist. He's
(13:39):
literally the first driver you meet in season one, right.
They even go to Australia and film him at his
home and he's like, I'm just this down, you know,
like very down to earth guy with my like four
wheelers or whatever it is, you know, in Australia and
his mom is nervous watching him race and she's talking
about how she hopes he comes home alive. And just
did this very sympathetic portrayal of this guy. And no
(14:02):
surprise here, people especially here in the States, eat it
up immediately.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I was already a fan and I was eating
it up, like he's cute. He's like, he's adorable. And
I again, I think they knew what they had and
they took advantage of it. They were like, he's someone
who is really good in front of the cameras. Like
I said, I grew to know and like him because
I was watching the media interviews with him, right, And
(14:28):
so I had already seen some of that personality just
in like boring media coverage about like what was going
on that weekend.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Alcohol tells, no matter how much money you make, you
don't turn that down.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And I said, out of your shoe.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yeah, actually a good point.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And so they were like, all right, well, if he
can make this press conference fun, imagine what he can
do for the entire brand if we go home with
him and he gives us a little stage access.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I feel like Daniel has always had a bit of
an interest in Hollywood. He couldn't have predicted into twenty
eighteen when they were filming the first season what the
show had become to the sport and to culture at large.
But he knew he could figure it out and ham
it up for the campas, and I think took advantage
of that more than any other driver did.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Something about him is that he's always sort of been
a class clown type and he's like, yeah, I want
to be known, I want to be seen, I want
to be loved by all.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You have reached the perfect point where I'm about to
point out, I think the central tension of Daniel Ricardo
if he was like a tragic hero, because are the
obstacles that he can never quite overcome.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yeah, it's that one.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
He has a pathological desire to be liked by everyone
at any cost. And two, he has a lot of
anxiety over his legacy. Especially that first season is really
about him struggling to decide if he should leave Red
Bull or not. Him dealing with the fact that this
hot new young driver, Max Firstappen has shown up. It is,
you know, taking the F one world by storm, and
(15:58):
he doesn't want to be the has been on that team.
I think I think that this is where drive to
Survive is great for him, but also starts to maybe
peel back some layers.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
I do think that drive to survive maybe put him
on this path, right. I think that he started getting
all this attention and he maybe started to think, I'm
bigger than this, I'm better than the second driver at
Red Bull.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
And at this point Max is still early on, He's
not necessarily winning championships yet. But I do think that
obviously in that first season, we see you know, the
crush in Azerbaijan.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
They have crushed.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
They got into each other, Daniel Ricardo life breaking, couldn't.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Stop it time Max staff And was right in front.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Of him, and they are kind of already fighting and
at each other's throats at this point. And I think
that Danny wanted to be the number one driver and
it wasn't necessarily shaking out that way, right, And so
I think that he had a lot of people around
him as well who probably were feeding into his ego.
(17:01):
And I don't know that his advisory team was necessarily
telling him the right things at this point in his career.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Talk about a clash of personalities, it's hard to imagine
a bigger clash between Max Verstapptan obviously could give less
of a fuck what anybody thinks of him.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah, it was such an interesting dichotomy of teammates.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's interesting also that to me, Daniel Ricardo he wants
to be liked and then he picks the team that
is known for like ripping its drivers to shreds.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
But do you think he knew this back then?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
He didn't know it didn't reach Australia.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
The other thing that I think is important about this time,
when we go from like late twenty tens to early
twenty twenties, is Daniel actually creates a clothing slash merch
line called a chante. And the reason I bring this
up is because this was an era where F one
and teams were not really letting their drivers create their
own merch, especially merch that was not sold in their
official merch shop, was not kind of going through official channels.
(17:57):
I mentioned Lando because he's talked about how is a
rookie way back.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
In twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
He actually had talked about creating his own merch and
doing all of his own stuff, and F one and
McLaren shut him down very quickly. They were like, you
can't do that. Daniel was one of the only drivers
really carving that space and going after it and dealing
with the logistical nightmare of convincing everyone that he should
be able to have slightly fashiony looking merch. I wouldn't
(18:23):
say it was perfect, but it was different than what
was out there.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
He was just smart about it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And it's interesting in that it was always still separate
esthetically sartorially from F one. You wouldn't necessarily know that
it's an F one driver merch shirt thing unless you
know you're.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
In the sport. If you know, you know exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
We're going to take a short ad break and then
we'll be right back. Welcome back to our episode about
the rise and fall of Daniel Ricardo. Okay, so this
is where I think we get to an interesting almost
like the classic, like Fork in the Road. He goes
to Reno for the twenty nineteen season.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
They brought Danny on because they were like, we need
someone who is experienced, We need someone who can help
us change the future of this team. We want to
build this team around someone, and unfortunately Danny just didn't
have the patience for it. It was devastating to watch
and drive after Danny left and just be like, we
(19:25):
thought that we had a good relationship. We thought that
we were building something special, and you would see there
were moments where Danny would perform pretty well on the
truck and make these incredible passes, and you.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Were like, he's back.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
We're so back, okay, And it just felt like behind
the scenes, you know, seeing in interviews and stuff, he
just was not settling in the way that everyone had
hoped he would settle in. Yeah, I wanted more out
of Reno era Danny. There was so much hype around
him going here. The decision to leave Red Bull, like
(20:01):
that was a big career decision, where like, Okay, you're
making this bet on this team that has been not
doing famously very well, Like you have the opportunity to
kind of turn things around.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I was like hoping for this era.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Of Danny to really lead this team to this new
golden era because I think that he had this skill
set and he had the talent to be.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Able to do so. I do think his hubrisk got
in the way.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Ooh, A big take from the Danie Ricardo defender on
the show. But yes, okay, give me more.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I am a staunch Daniel Ricardo defender, but I am
allowed to be critical of him because I love him
and I want him to be better. So I am
critical of him in some aspects. I do think his
huber's kind of gone the way. I think that, like
I said, I don't think he had the patience. McLaren
came knock knock knocking. He said, better team, they're performing better.
(21:03):
I can hop skip jump my way to maybe winning
a world championship instead of building a stronger foundation with Reno.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
And then what happened, well, nothing good.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
One could argue that was the beginning of the end
for his career. Again, dun Dundu sinister music yo, Hi
can put that in later whatever's royalty free.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
He leaves Renno after only two seasons, Cyril, the team
principal at Reno, is devastated and lets everyone know for
multiple years that he has devastated. I don't think I've
seen a break up this disastrous since Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston in the early two they This man is
acting like everyone he's loved has abandoned him.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Sierra will be talking about this on this deathbed.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He will be asking for Danny in his last breaths
and being like, my boy.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
You know how everyone jokes that, like men will go
through one break up when they're nineteen, and they make
it everyone's problem, like every woman's problem that they date, Yeah, forever.
That's serial with Dania Ricardo. Like he's like I can
never trust again, I can never love again. And it's
because Daniel Ricardo broke his heart in like twenty twenty.
It's like, okay, okay, sir, Like I think we need
(22:16):
to figure this out.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I was genuinely surprised when he got picked up by McLaren.
I will say McLaren was kind of on the up
and up at that point.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
He's seemingly leveled up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Now he's at McLaren one of the top three to
four teams on the grid. I will say I was
not nervous about him being at McLaren until.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
That second year. The end of the first season.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Going into the second season, I was like, I'm a
little worried.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
To kind of like add a little color to what's
going on here. The prevailing narrative was that he was
going to eat the lunch of Lando Norris, who is
barely an adult at this point, right, He's like twenty
one years.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Old or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And while Lando is obviously a promising driver, he's been
part of the McLaren junior program for a bit and
he's considered their homegrown talent, there's still this idea that, hey,
Daniel's the experience driver with all these wins. He can
maybe show Lando a thing or two, but he's going
to be the number one driver who comes in and
really helps, you know, this team revive because they've really
been rebuilding for several years. And yeah, like that was
(23:19):
just the assumption, right. It was like, Daniel will eat
Lando's lunch. Too bad, so sad, such as life, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
And at this point too, Lando is pretty cocky, right,
so he was talking a big game like he was like,
I don't care if Danny Rick comes on to the team,
Like I don't care, and you're like, okay, well be quiet,
little boy, Like this is a professional over here. I
know Danny just for a lack of better ease of words,
shit the bed.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That is what happened. I also will note that this
is really a time where these murmurs and rumors of
Daniel's spending too much time focused on his celebrity start
to go into more of an overdrive. People are starting
to ask questions. It's obvious that he's chasing more than just,
you know, a World Drivers Championship title at this point.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Which I think is a siop narrative. By the way,
I think that was planted. People were just trying to
slander my man.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
God forbid.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
He does a little social media influencing, okay, God forbid.
He likes to share his top three favorite songs with
beats once a week.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Okay, God forbid.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
So you were talking about then, how you got nervous
for Danny's second McClaren season.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Lando was just he was just beating him every single week,
and it was really tough to see. And Lando would
get up in the media and be like this, Grandpa,
I don't care about Danny Rick. Like he would just
say the craziest things. And at this point I was
mad at Lando. I was a Lando hater back in
the day. I was like, keep my man's name out
(24:51):
of your mouth.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
But it was not the.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Danny Rick that we had seen in the past. Like
even the Danny Rick at Reno was pulling crazy passes.
He was getting the most out of the car that
he could in a way that you have a McLaren
that is consistently placing in.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
The top five and you're not getting anything out of
that car.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
You're out of the points and your other driver on
your team is on a podium like consistently.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Lando had that comment where he finished really well.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
They asked him about.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
How Danny must be feeling or something like that, and
he literally was like I don't care about what he thinks.
That was a moment where I was like, this is
not good for you, my guy. Blando was twenty years
old and Danny was at this point probably twenty nine,
and he just was like, you have way more experience
than me, and this is how you're performing.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I don't respect you. Again.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
The internet had much to say because they had to
do a bunch of those little YouTube challenge videos and stuff,
and it was just so awkward.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Thanks to ax Noble for the tips and lessons. We
are about to all talents so many times.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
YEA, Daniel at this point giving a lot of smiles
that don't reach his eyes, so to speak, like he's
being smiley, but you also can tell.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
It's very forced training on him exactly. They ruined his
mental health at McLaren. They beat him down, maybe more
so than Red Bull. We were talking shit on Red
Bull Junior program. But I saw the life and the
light leave Daniel Ricardo's eyes when he was at McLaren.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
This is too much. I need to get my tissue
box here. This is turning into a very sad episode.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Now, of course I have to ask the question, do
we think this is all McLaren's fault or does a
little bit of the blame fall to the driver himself?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
No, of course it's not all McLaren's fault. Do I
think that Danny had lost his confidence and it seeped
into his mental health and it just kind of made
him a worse driver because he didn't, you know, have
the support that he needed at McLaren probably, but there
were probably that he could have done to get out
(27:03):
of that mindset and maybe perform a little better at McLaren.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I was gonna say too.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Something else I noted from this time so especially it
starts in twenty twenty one, but really kicks in a
high year in twenty twenty two is he does start
to venture into Hollywood, venture into entertainment more and more,
which again goes back to the very online narrative of
he's not spending enough time at HQ in the sim
he's out doing all these Hollywood things. So like, for instance,
summer of twenty twenty two is the first time we
hear that he is helping develop a Hulu show. It's
(27:32):
going to be a comedy, takes place in the Paddock.
It eventually was called Downforce, and he described it as
being Entourage but f one. So that's going on. He
starts to go on a bunch of major US sports podcasts.
He does US late night talk shows.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Please Welcome to the Late Show, Daniel Ricardo.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
He finally goes to met Gala in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
You know that expression, I'm my first rodeo, It actually
is my first Rodio.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
There's a viral clip where he he kind of like
steps in the frame of Van Hathaway, who's then like
I love you, I love f one. You know, he
goes with Tom Brown, who's a major, major designer. So
my point being, he is not having a good time
on the track, but I'm sure he's almost like adding
more pressure to himself because while he's not performing great,
he's really expanding his global and cultural reach and more
(28:21):
people know. Yeah, he's just more famous. Yeah, I think
he's also he likes being famous. I think he also
does take this idea of being you know, an ambassador,
ambassador to the sport seriously, which I'm sure f one
loved that. But also, yeah, it almost further accentuates how
not great things are going at your actual job, aka
being a racing driver. When yeah, you have to show
(28:43):
up to the met galon you're like, I'm like the
unofficial mascot of Red Bull, basically as the quote unquote
third driver at this point, like, I you know, when
did I last win a race? Oh years ago? Like,
you know, just a different setup than than I think
what he would have preferred. When he starts really going
into the cultural spotlight so to speak. Yo, Hi, give
(29:04):
us the ad break. Welcome back to No Grip and
our discussion of the chaotic career of Daniel Ricardo.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
He's doing a lot of good work for F one
as a brand, but his actual boss, the team that
he drives for, is not happy that he's puttson around
doing other things instead of getting his head in the game.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
And also flights between various parts of Europe AKA Monaco
or wherever to like New York, LA. Those are far
like It's not like he's just a hop and skip away, right,
He's doing a lot of traveling at this point that
he on top of the traveling you just have to
do to compete in Formula one. Yeah, so just a
lot of time away from the track and the sim
and all these other things.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
You have to do period. Okay, so we've been.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Alluding to this basically. Yeah, at the end of his
second season with McLaren they say see you later. He
is heading back to Rent Bull. However, he does not
have a seat officially a Red Bull. He becomes their
quote quote third driver. He basically unofficially becomes the chief
marketing vessel for the team because check out and Max
are not the most enthused when it comes to TikTok
(30:10):
videos and sponsorship activations and other engagements, so Danny Rick
gets kind of thrown into all of that stuff instead
of these guys.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
When you put it like that, how you just framed it, Lily,
it sounds so demeanus.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It is that.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, I'm imagining Danny Rick as like the guy with
the flip sign outside of the restaurant, you know what
I mean, or like the chicken costume.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
That they have turned this man into, like they're like
dance monkey dance, like that's what they're making him do.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I was sad for him.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I was like, at what cost Danny, Like, at what
costs are you gonna go be the court jester for
Christian and Red Bull to just be like I'm gonna
be in all the marketing videos and like maybe potentially
have a spot on the team at some point, Like
at this point, go be a celebrity. You've got things
going on, like go do that. But no, he decided
(30:57):
to be the court jester for a little bit, but
paid off, I guess because he went back with Al
Fatari to.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Close out and then we'll get to like the big
post Mortemen post, you know, post F one career stuff.
But I feel like Daniel Ricardo's career then kind of
ends with a whimper instead of a roar, because he
does get a full time seed out of Helfatri, which
again rebrands to Visa Cash App RB now it's Racing Bowls.
But I just called him vcar because I can't deal
with this nonsense, like what I can't you can You
(31:26):
can't have teams called Red Bull and Racing Bowls like
off of this nonsense. Anyway, he starts his twenty twenty
four season with Vcarb et cetera. However, he is out
before the season even ends, and that is where his
F one career ends. So what makes this very awkward
is that there's no real sign until, like right before
(31:46):
it happens that this is his last race. He's still
saying to people, No, no, I'm gonna get another seat in
F one. People say, hey, would you entertain going to
a different motor sports series like Indiecard. He's like, nah,
I'm an F one guy through and through, and so
it just has this very awkward, bizarre end. And to this,
as we've laid out a very interesting I would are
you important F one.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Career devastating stuff, Like I truly was heartbroken for this man.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
It was depressing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I think what was interesting was the reaction online. I
feel like ran the gamut on a spectrum of either
people saying like, I am almost offended that you all
didn't give this man a proper sendoff, and other people
were saying, well, he kind of did it to himself
because he just like wouldn't accept that his career was
just not going anywhere, and if he had maybe taken
control for a guy who was really obsessed with people
liking him and his legacy, like he didn't really take
(32:34):
control of the situation to where it'd be like. So
my example of this, the kind of in contrast is
in twenty twenty two, Sebastian Bettle, four time World drivers Champion,
announces over the summer break that he is retiring from
F one at the end of that twenty twenty two season.
So that gave everyone a lot of time to absorb
except and everyone knew he was like, I am leaving.
(32:55):
I want to hang out with my wife and my
kids and my friends and the b's in my bee
enclosure and that is it. I don't want to see
any of you ever again. And sure enough we've seen
him like three times since he since he left the sport.
So he got these enormous sendoffs. It was very celebratory
from other drivers, from fans, like from teams, like everyone
was really excited for him to move on to the
next chapter.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Thank you for the support, thank you for the messages,
the letters and all the love in general.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And meanwhile, Daniel Ricardo, Yeah, he had completely different set
up at the end there and conclusion to his career.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
As someone who had been so important to the Red
Bull organization. The way v Car fired him so unceremoniously,
like they should have sat him down, had a conversation,
given him the opportunity to do it his way.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
It just feel like nothing quite aligned, and maybe he
couldn't quite make that decision or really accept that his
time was over. Maybe he had like a Tom Brady
moment right of being like okay, guys, like I'm out,
just kidding, I'm back. It's not going well. Okay, I'm
out again, Like I don't know. I think it's it's
very rare that professional ass leads of any sort can
can end their time on their own terms. Yeah, and
(34:04):
so it's interesting to me that he's a guy you'd
think would have that ability or that opportunity if you
really wanted it and just didn't or couldn't or both,
like couldn't take take it or couldn't accept it or whatever. Yeah,
any number of other things were going on.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
At the same time.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, it was just sad to watch someone who you
had such high hopes for to just not accomplish really
anything that they wanted to in the sport.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
He never gets the World Driver's title.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
I really do believe in a parallel universe he has
accomplished that dream. I think that he was good enough
at one point to be able to reach that.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Where was the fork in the road where he should
have or could have really taken a different path.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
I think he shouldn't have left Red Bull when he did.
I think if he had stuck it out for another
one to two years, I think he would have gotten
a championship.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
I think in twenty fourteen, for a brief moment, he
was the third best driver.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And you know what, that's fine, that's great. We are
allowed to have different opinions.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Just to give the quick epilogue of Danna Ricardo. Since
he was unceremoniously dumped, things have been a little wacky.
So the Hulu show he was working on, they actually
did write a pilot, got people cast. Eve Houston was
supposed to be the lead in this with Murray Bartlett.
It proceeds to get dumped and is now not happening.
(35:28):
He's continuing to put out his new clothing lines under
a chante, but understandably probably not as big as it
once was.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I mean, he still has fans in the motorsport space,
but I don't know people going to his pop up
in New York who aren't existing f one fans. And
he did become an ambassador with Ford Racing and is
doing still a lot of marketing and other gigs with them.
He also has grown a very unruly beard that makes
him look like Jason Mansucis from I would say, specifically
(35:58):
during his Adrian Pimento Brooklyn nine to nine era, how
are we feeling about the beard?
Speaker 4 (36:02):
I should I should ask.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I don't
know something about it.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
I love that he's growing a depression beard. Yeah, let
him such a life.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
He doesn't have to be aerodynamic right now, Okay, so
let him grow a beard.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I would say to that point too, he is pretty
much announced he's retired from motor racing. He's basically said
he's out. He's never gone to a different racing series.
He's never tried anything new on that front. He's like,
I'm done. So that is where we generally end with
Daniel Ricardo's career, and this kind of idea of what
happens when you're at the top of the world, but
(36:36):
you also become an unofficial ambathadad to the sport and
also kind of want to be famous, and all these
things happen at once, and also your performance really tanks.
You know, it seems to be a mixed bag by
the end. My last question is do you think Daniel
Ricardo's career is an F one success story, a cautionary tale,
(36:56):
or both.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I do think that he has a lot to be
proud of despite never winning a world championship title. I
think he has cemented himself as an F one legend.
People will be talking about him for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So that's where we leave Daniel Ricardo for now. As
I said at the top of this episode, it's easy
to feel one way or another about Danny's on track
performance over the years, especially towards the end of his career,
but it's hard to argue he didn't have a profound
impact on the culture of the sport. But bringing it
back to Australian representation on the grid, now that Daniel
is gone, we end our tale with Oscar Piastre, who
(37:35):
seems like Danny's polar opposite in almost every conceivable way.
Oscar is all about racing and has zero interest in celebrity.
He probably won't be popping up at the met Gala
anytime soon, or buying a mansion in Hollywood. He's ultra
private about his personal life, and despite his grievances with
McLaren last season, he's doubly committed to winning a championship
with the team this year. Ultimately, maybe a number of
(37:56):
external forces and some bad luck made it harder for
Daniel to really compete for a World Driver's Championship title.
Maybe he was too focused on his off track celebrity
at times when he should have been locked in on
improving his performance, or maybe he just didn't have it.
But does Oscar Piastre have it? Only time will tell
that's our show for today. No Grip is hosted by
(38:19):
me Lily Herman and produced, edited and sound designed by
Johai Metal. Max Miller is our executive producer. We get
additional production support from Poldo Special thanks to Ben Riskin
at Room Tone at Iheartshanta Tone is executive producer. Be
sure to give this show a five star rating and review.
Wherever you're listening, you can follow me at Lily k
Herman on Instagram and follow us at No Grip Podcast
(38:40):
on Instagram and TikTok. We'll see you on March eleventh,
ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix
Formula one has been called many things over the years.
The pinnacle of motor sports, a global spectacle, the place
for cutting edge engineering, a sandbox for rich, emotionally unregulated
adrenaline junkies with daddy issues, and a few mommy issues
sprinkled in.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
To US sex servicing.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
But beyond discussions of power units in Oversteer, there are
so many other subcultures, niches, and communities that make up
the sport. I'm Lily Hermann, creator of the longtime Formula
one culture newsletter Engine Failure, and a longtime writer. You
may also recognize my voice from season one of Choosing
Sides f one, where I took listeners and daily show
co host Michael Costa through the history of the sport,
the teams and the drivers on the grid at the time.
(00:43):
But now I'm here with the old Choosing Sides crew
producer Johai Metal and executive producer Max Miller launching a
new endeavor, Welcome to No Grip, a Formula one culture
podcast that'll take you through this sport's under explored mishap,
scandals and sagas, both on and off track. In the
coming episodes, we'll discussed the twenty twenty three schism I
dubbed wag agedin the nineteen eighty two drivers strike that
(01:04):
led to almost an entire grid of racers being stuffed
into a South African hotel ballroom. Bernie Eclestone, he was upset,
he was angry, He fired both of his drivers and
the rapidly expanding subgenre of Formula one romance novels that's
popped up in traditional publishing over the past four years.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The adrenaline from the podium hadn't faded, It had just
curdled into something sharper, more dangerous.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
He still smelled of podium, champagne and expensive friction. Needless
to say, I have thoughts. But for our first episode,
we're kicking off our season and the Formula one season
by heading to the land down Under. Well, Nicole, thank
you for doing this.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's super great and nothing I love more than to
talk about my favorite person on.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Earth, Daniel Ricardo.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
The Australian Grand Prix is coming up this weekend, kicking
off a new season that's bringing a slew of new
regulations as well as a new team to the grid.
But there are also some bigger conversations lurking as we
head to the Southern Hemisphere, chiefly around what it takes
to win a championship these days and how drivers balance
the demands of the sport and burgeoning global celebrity. We
currently have one assie on the grid, Oscar Piastre, who
(02:10):
was third for the World Drivers Championship last year. Despite
spending much of the season comfortably in the lead, Oscar
came up short behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who
eventually won the title. It became an increasingly bitter battle
as McLaren's top brass struggled to figure out how to
prioritize both of their drivers. Europe is the birthplace of
Formula One, but Australia has long produced some of the
(02:30):
sport's best and most interesting drivers. You've got three time
World Drivers Champion Jack Grabham, who eventually found it a
successful racing team and remains the only Formula One driver
to have won the title in a car he built.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
It's Jack Brabham in Car five, dragging the last an
zupa from his all Australian redcoat Brabham Special.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Then, of course there's Mark Webber, a spirited driver known
in the twenty and twenty tens for his share of
big moves on the track and memorable interview and on
board moments.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Oh kids, didn't kids enough experience still the job that they.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
But when it comes to Australia's recent history in the sport,
no driver looms as large as Daniel Ricardo, a fan
favorite and a smiley staple of the grid through much
of the twenty tens and into the early twenty twenties. However,
he was unceremoniously dumped from his final F one team
before the end of the twenty twenty four season, and
in fall of twenty twenty five he announced his retirement
from motorsport. In general, people have a lot of opinions
(03:23):
about Daniel Riccardo. The way some people talk about him,
you'd think he has the charisma of Jesus and the
athleticism of Lebron James. Others think he's overrated and spent
way too much of his time worrying about mainstream celebrity
and off track endeavors. But as we see more and
more racers taking a Danny rick Esque approach to their
wheelings and dealings in the sport and outside of it,
it's time to look back on one of the most
(03:44):
popular contemporary F one drivers. Today, I am joined by
Chief Ricardo Nicole Severs, one half of the duo behind
the podcast two Girls One Formula Nicole, We're doing it.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Oh my god, long time coming.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I'm absolutely putting chiefer Cardo on my LinkedIn after this,
by the way, so thank you for that title.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Great Now I'm excited you're here. I thought of this
episode and then I said, no one else can be
the guest other than Nicole.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I truly have so many thoughts about this man. He
really takes up a lot of brain space for me.
Even though now he's seemingly a wall all of the time,
I'm thinking about him every single day regardless.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
First and foremost, can you just situate everyone, when did
you first learn about Daniel Riccardo and when did you
become a stan of this man?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I actually vividly remember the moment I became a Daniel
Ricardo fan. One of my ex partners was a big
Formula one fan. I had never heard of this sport
ever in my entire life, but he was just watching
one of the driver press briefings and Danny just had
the most silly demeanor and the most personality of any
(04:58):
one of the drivers up there, and.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I said, you know what that really speaks to me.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That is someone who I can see myself rallying behind
everyone else up there is taking themselves way too seriously.
And obviously we might get into this later, but is
that a pro or con of Danny's downfall? But I
truly was just like, Yeah, that's someone that I want
to be a fan of. I really resonate with his
personality and I think, you know, I need someone to root.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
For and get behind.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
And this was twenty fifteen, so it's been you know,
just over ten years now that I've been following Danny's
journey on the grid and off the grid.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Okay, so let's take a step back then, Yes, yo hi,
Actually yo hi, When did you first pay attention to
Daniel Ricardo?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Just just for perspective, I.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Mean, yeah, I didn't want to sound condescending, but I
feel an incredible condescension towards both of you, because the
real Danny Rick was before the Drive to Survive era.
I mean, when Drive to Survive started, he was past
his prime. Ooh, that's not Danny, right.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Take.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I'm sad that that's what we remember him for.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Twenty fifteen was not drive to survive Era one fifteen
not yet.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, twenty eighteen was the season they filmed for Season one.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, so I had a little bit pre drive to
survive thee OHI so take a little bit of that
condescension back.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Okay, thank you, okay, okay, So we are going to
rewind to July second, nineteen eighty nine, Daniel Joseph Riccardo
enters the world. Born in Perth in Western Australia, to
Joe and Grace Ricardo, he becomes interested in motorsports at
a very young age, watching his dad race at a
nearby circuit. He begins karting officially at age nine, eventually
(06:38):
races all over the country. At sixteen, he wins the
Australian Karting Championship and in a very fun twist, part
of his victory prize was a pass to the two
thousand and six Australian Grand Prix, and he very fondly
recalls chatting with the Italian F one driver Jarno Trully
and Miss Universe two thousand and four Jennifer Hawkins, If
(06:58):
you could choose what time period to be born and
what sex to be what would you choose and why
I'd have to say that this time period because we
have as much freedom as we want. And I choose
the sex of Fema because femas have a let us say,
in today's society. I do not know Jennifer Hawkins's work,
but good for her and good for him. So he
was very excited as a teenage boy about this. However,
(07:19):
I think like many drivers who are not based, particularly
in Europe, he realizes that there's a real ceiling to
his racing career if he stays in Australia. So he
does race a little bit in Asia, slithers over to Europe,
starts making his way through the junior ranks, and most notably,
I would argue probably the most consequential decision of his
entire career is that in two thousand and seven he
signs up to be part of the junior program at
(07:43):
Red Bull.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Duntandan. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
The junior program at Red Bull is a cutthroat place.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
It is. It is.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
It's very similar to like a K pop boot camp.
Those people are going in and they're being put to
work and being.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Chewed up and spit out.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Obviously, we have helmet Marco at the helm of the
Red Bull Junior Team, who's really bringing in this talent?
And at this point we have seen a handful of
drivers go through this program and just really not be
able to live up to the standards that Christian Horner
(08:26):
rip former team principal, and.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I also not real life rip F one grid rip.
He's still alive to our.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Knowledge, basically sorry, yeah, yeah, anyway, him and Helmet Marco
kind of like Bond villains, taking these young men with
F one dreams and really just making them work for
their CEE on the team. Not that everyone doesn't have
to work for their ce but I feel like Red
Bull really really makes you work for it.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
The Red Bull Junior program is very into who is
going to be the number one boy?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Right like that That's the whole thing, one hundred percent,
that's the vibe.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, you have to go through the gauntlet of like
Helmet Marco talking about you when you're like fifteen years
old to the press, and Christian Holland generally being a
shit stir and then who you know, if they don't
to you up, spit you out, you may make it
to potentially be.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You may on a team some of you may die,
and that is just a chance I'm willing to take exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Like that's how I'm at Marco.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, So Daniel Ricardo does, in fact have success despite
the cutthroat nature of this program. He becomes a test
driver for the Red Bull F one team. In two
thousand and nine, he's a test and reserve driver for
the sister team Slash B Team Slash. They call it
any number of things to get around the fact that
Red Bull owns two F one teams, Toro Rosso, which
has gone through twenty seven different name changes over the years.
(09:45):
This is by twenty eleven and Franz Toast, who was
then the Toro Rosso team principle at the time, said
this is a direct quote. Having a hungry youngster on
the books will keep our current driver pairing nice and sharp.
So Daniel had somehow distant himself in this Den of
Sin Slash, Ocean of Sharks or whatever. The you know
(10:06):
quote is getting all my metaphors mixed up. This is
actually where I want to hear yo Hia's opinion, because
when I look at old photos and videos of Daniel
Ricardo at this point, right he's a teenager still and
in some cases early twenties, depending on this kind of
late twenty's, early twenty tens era, he's a little awkward,
like still charming, but a little awkward, hasn't quite grown
into his eventual kind of vibe looks, et cetera. Which
(10:31):
totally fine, but like, I don't know, he hasn't quite
gotten it yet. But I see what everyone's going to see.
So YOHI yeah, Like what was this guy like back
in the very early days when he arrived on the scene.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, he was promoted to Red Bull. He was a
toro also, but then he was promoted to Red Bull.
At twenty fourteen, he was paired with Vedol, and Vedel
was four time world champion, and the expectation was that
basically this rookie, you know, the intern essentially was going
to come and he would be like nobody next to Vettel,
(11:05):
and he slayed Vettel. It was embarrassing to watch for Vettel,
and Daniel Ricardo was like very aggressive. I think he
actually won a few races in that season. Yeah, it
was a boring season sort of dominated by Mercedes, and
he was the only one to actually take a few
wins from Mercedes, and he would he would have these
(11:27):
passes that we would associate these days with Max Verstappen
sending it like crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Side by side with Sebastian Metal Down's almost a second
chicade on the inside, goes Tanya Riccardo. Riccardo takes the place.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Brilliant move.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
So at that time I wasn't thinking of his goofiness
or anything like that. He just seemed like a killer
of a driver. It's almost almost weird to see his
smile and his demeanor after seeing his driving style, which
is very aggressive, very aggressive.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
What does champagne out of a sweaty race boot taste
like delicious?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Scrumpcious?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That was my impression. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it went
up from there.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Ooh, a shot fired.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
This sort of feels like a red table talk between
you know, high and I like we have got opposite
ends of the spectrum here and.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I'm just like in the middle and trying to keep
the between then two okay, So yeah, so Daniel to
Rosso red Bull. He does have some very high highs,
but also some very low lows. He does finish third
in the World Drivers' Championship on two separate occasions. He
wins seven races as part of the Red Bull juggernaut,
but he also has to deal with as we've been describing,
(12:36):
he's very intense internal politics and all this other bs
that is very much a hallmark of the Red Bull team.
It seems like a team too, where yes, they're always
going to be drivers pitted against each other in various
parts of the sport, but it goes beyond the usual
rivalries and the usual scuffles, and there's ongoing nonsense from
the leadership of this team as well. What I find
(12:56):
interesting about this time, but particularly towards the end of
dans time at Red Bull, is that he gets a
big break. In the mid twenty tens, Liberty Media buys
the Formula one brand and as part of this big
overhaul plan that they're doing to really bring new fans
to the sport and new people to the sport, they say,
we're going to start a new docu series called Drive
to Survive, where we get unfettered access to the paddock
(13:19):
and the drivers and the team principles and really show
everyone a different side of this sport, particularly in places
like the US where F one is not that popular.
And I have long said that has is the team
protagonist in the early seasons of Drive to Survive, but
Daniel Riccardo very very quickly becomes the driver protagonist. He's
(13:39):
literally the first driver you meet in season one, right.
They even go to Australia and film him at his
home and he's like, I'm just this down, you know,
like very down to earth guy with my like four
wheelers or whatever it is, you know, in Australia and
his mom is nervous watching him race and she's talking
about how she hopes he comes home alive. And just
did this very sympathetic portrayal of this guy. And no
(14:02):
surprise here, people especially here in the States, eat it
up immediately.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I was already a fan and I was eating
it up, like he's cute. He's like, he's adorable. And
I again, I think they knew what they had and
they took advantage of it. They were like, he's someone
who is really good in front of the cameras. Like
I said, I grew to know and like him because
I was watching the media interviews with him, right, And
(14:28):
so I had already seen some of that personality just
in like boring media coverage about like what was going
on that weekend.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Alcohol tells, no matter how much money you make, you
don't turn that down.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And I said, out of your shoe.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yeah, actually a good point.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And so they were like, all right, well, if he
can make this press conference fun, imagine what he can
do for the entire brand if we go home with
him and he gives us a little stage access.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I feel like Daniel has always had a bit of
an interest in Hollywood. He couldn't have predicted into twenty
eighteen when they were filming the first season what the
show had become to the sport and to culture at large.
But he knew he could figure it out and ham
it up for the campas, and I think took advantage
of that more than any other driver did.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Something about him is that he's always sort of been
a class clown type and he's like, yeah, I want
to be known, I want to be seen, I want
to be loved by all.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You have reached the perfect point where I'm about to
point out, I think the central tension of Daniel Ricardo
if he was like a tragic hero, because are the
obstacles that he can never quite overcome.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yeah, it's that one.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
He has a pathological desire to be liked by everyone
at any cost. And two, he has a lot of
anxiety over his legacy. Especially that first season is really
about him struggling to decide if he should leave Red
Bull or not. Him dealing with the fact that this
hot new young driver, Max Firstappen has shown up. It is,
you know, taking the F one world by storm, and
(15:58):
he doesn't want to be the has been on that team.
I think I think that this is where drive to
Survive is great for him, but also starts to maybe
peel back some layers.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
I do think that drive to survive maybe put him
on this path, right. I think that he started getting
all this attention and he maybe started to think, I'm
bigger than this, I'm better than the second driver at
Red Bull.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
And at this point Max is still early on, He's
not necessarily winning championships yet. But I do think that
obviously in that first season, we see you know, the
crush in Azerbaijan.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
They have crushed.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
They got into each other, Daniel Ricardo life breaking, couldn't.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Stop it time Max staff And was right in front.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Of him, and they are kind of already fighting and
at each other's throats at this point. And I think
that Danny wanted to be the number one driver and
it wasn't necessarily shaking out that way, right, And so
I think that he had a lot of people around
him as well who probably were feeding into his ego.
(17:01):
And I don't know that his advisory team was necessarily
telling him the right things at this point in his career.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Talk about a clash of personalities, it's hard to imagine
a bigger clash between Max Verstapptan obviously could give less
of a fuck what anybody thinks of him.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah, it was such an interesting dichotomy of teammates.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's interesting also that to me, Daniel Ricardo he wants
to be liked and then he picks the team that
is known for like ripping its drivers to shreds.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
But do you think he knew this back then?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
He didn't know it didn't reach Australia.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
The other thing that I think is important about this time,
when we go from like late twenty tens to early
twenty twenties, is Daniel actually creates a clothing slash merch
line called a chante. And the reason I bring this
up is because this was an era where F one
and teams were not really letting their drivers create their
own merch, especially merch that was not sold in their
official merch shop, was not kind of going through official channels.
(17:57):
I mentioned Lando because he's talked about how is a
rookie way back.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
In twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
He actually had talked about creating his own merch and
doing all of his own stuff, and F one and
McLaren shut him down very quickly. They were like, you
can't do that. Daniel was one of the only drivers
really carving that space and going after it and dealing
with the logistical nightmare of convincing everyone that he should
be able to have slightly fashiony looking merch. I wouldn't
(18:23):
say it was perfect, but it was different than what
was out there.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
He was just smart about it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And it's interesting in that it was always still separate
esthetically sartorially from F one. You wouldn't necessarily know that
it's an F one driver merch shirt thing unless you
know you're.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
In the sport. If you know, you know exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
We're going to take a short ad break and then
we'll be right back. Welcome back to our episode about
the rise and fall of Daniel Ricardo. Okay, so this
is where I think we get to an interesting almost
like the classic, like Fork in the Road. He goes
to Reno for the twenty nineteen season.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
They brought Danny on because they were like, we need
someone who is experienced, We need someone who can help
us change the future of this team. We want to
build this team around someone, and unfortunately Danny just didn't
have the patience for it. It was devastating to watch
and drive after Danny left and just be like, we
(19:25):
thought that we had a good relationship. We thought that
we were building something special, and you would see there
were moments where Danny would perform pretty well on the
truck and make these incredible passes, and you.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Were like, he's back.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
We're so back, okay, And it just felt like behind
the scenes, you know, seeing in interviews and stuff, he
just was not settling in the way that everyone had
hoped he would settle in. Yeah, I wanted more out
of Reno era Danny. There was so much hype around
him going here. The decision to leave Red Bull, like
(20:01):
that was a big career decision, where like, Okay, you're
making this bet on this team that has been not
doing famously very well, Like you have the opportunity to
kind of turn things around.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I was like hoping for this era.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Of Danny to really lead this team to this new
golden era because I think that he had this skill
set and he had the talent to be.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Able to do so. I do think his hubrisk got
in the way.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Ooh, A big take from the Danie Ricardo defender on
the show. But yes, okay, give me more.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I am a staunch Daniel Ricardo defender, but I am
allowed to be critical of him because I love him
and I want him to be better. So I am
critical of him in some aspects. I do think his
huber's kind of gone the way. I think that, like
I said, I don't think he had the patience. McLaren
came knock knock knocking. He said, better team, they're performing better.
(21:03):
I can hop skip jump my way to maybe winning
a world championship instead of building a stronger foundation with Reno.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
And then what happened, well, nothing good.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
One could argue that was the beginning of the end
for his career. Again, dun Dundu sinister music yo, Hi
can put that in later whatever's royalty free.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I guess.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
He leaves Renno after only two seasons, Cyril, the team
principal at Reno, is devastated and lets everyone know for
multiple years that he has devastated. I don't think I've
seen a break up this disastrous since Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston in the early two they This man is
acting like everyone he's loved has abandoned him.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Sierra will be talking about this on this deathbed.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
He will be asking for Danny in his last breaths
and being like, my boy.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
You know how everyone jokes that, like men will go
through one break up when they're nineteen, and they make
it everyone's problem, like every woman's problem that they date, Yeah, forever.
That's serial with Dania Ricardo. Like he's like I can
never trust again, I can never love again. And it's
because Daniel Ricardo broke his heart in like twenty twenty.
It's like, okay, okay, sir, Like I think we need
(22:16):
to figure this out.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I was genuinely surprised when he got picked up by McLaren.
I will say McLaren was kind of on the up
and up at that point.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
He's seemingly leveled up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Now he's at McLaren one of the top three to
four teams on the grid. I will say I was
not nervous about him being at McLaren until.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
That second year. The end of the first season.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Going into the second season, I was like, I'm a
little worried.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
To kind of like add a little color to what's
going on here. The prevailing narrative was that he was
going to eat the lunch of Lando Norris, who is
barely an adult at this point, right, He's like twenty
one years.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Old or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And while Lando is obviously a promising driver, he's been
part of the McLaren junior program for a bit and
he's considered their homegrown talent, there's still this idea that, hey,
Daniel's the experience driver with all these wins. He can
maybe show Lando a thing or two, but he's going
to be the number one driver who comes in and
really helps, you know, this team revive because they've really
been rebuilding for several years. And yeah, like that was
(23:19):
just the assumption, right. It was like, Daniel will eat
Lando's lunch. Too bad, so sad, such as life, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
And at this point too, Lando is pretty cocky, right,
so he was talking a big game like he was like,
I don't care if Danny Rick comes on to the team,
Like I don't care, and you're like, okay, well be quiet,
little boy, Like this is a professional over here. I
know Danny just for a lack of better ease of words,
shit the bed.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That is what happened. I also will note that this
is really a time where these murmurs and rumors of
Daniel's spending too much time focused on his celebrity start
to go into more of an overdrive. People are starting
to ask questions. It's obvious that he's chasing more than just,
you know, a World Drivers Championship title at this point.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Which I think is a siop narrative. By the way,
I think that was planted. People were just trying to
slander my man.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
God forbid.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
He does a little social media influencing, okay, God forbid.
He likes to share his top three favorite songs with
beats once a week.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Okay, God forbid.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
So you were talking about then, how you got nervous
for Danny's second McClaren season.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Lando was just he was just beating him every single week,
and it was really tough to see. And Lando would
get up in the media and be like this, Grandpa,
I don't care about Danny Rick. Like he would just
say the craziest things. And at this point I was
mad at Lando. I was a Lando hater back in
the day. I was like, keep my man's name out
(24:51):
of your mouth.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
But it was not the.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Danny Rick that we had seen in the past. Like
even the Danny Rick at Reno was pulling crazy passes.
He was getting the most out of the car that
he could in a way that you have a McLaren
that is consistently placing in.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
The top five and you're not getting anything out of
that car.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
You're out of the points and your other driver on
your team is on a podium like consistently.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Lando had that comment where he finished really well.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
They asked him about.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
How Danny must be feeling or something like that, and
he literally was like I don't care about what he thinks.
That was a moment where I was like, this is
not good for you, my guy. Blando was twenty years
old and Danny was at this point probably twenty nine,
and he just was like, you have way more experience
than me, and this is how you're performing.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
I don't respect you. Again.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
The internet had much to say because they had to
do a bunch of those little YouTube challenge videos and stuff,
and it was just so awkward.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Thanks to ax Noble for the tips and lessons. We
are about to all talents so many times.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
YEA, Daniel at this point giving a lot of smiles
that don't reach his eyes, so to speak, like he's
being smiley, but you also can tell.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
It's very forced training on him exactly. They ruined his
mental health at McLaren. They beat him down, maybe more
so than Red Bull. We were talking shit on Red
Bull Junior program. But I saw the life and the
light leave Daniel Ricardo's eyes when he was at McLaren.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
This is too much. I need to get my tissue
box here. This is turning into a very sad episode.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Now, of course I have to ask the question, do
we think this is all McLaren's fault or does a
little bit of the blame fall to the driver himself?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
No, of course it's not all McLaren's fault. Do I
think that Danny had lost his confidence and it seeped
into his mental health and it just kind of made
him a worse driver because he didn't, you know, have
the support that he needed at McLaren probably, but there
were probably that he could have done to get out
(27:03):
of that mindset and maybe perform a little better at McLaren.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I was gonna say too.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Something else I noted from this time so especially it
starts in twenty twenty one, but really kicks in a
high year in twenty twenty two is he does start
to venture into Hollywood, venture into entertainment more and more,
which again goes back to the very online narrative of
he's not spending enough time at HQ in the sim
he's out doing all these Hollywood things. So like, for instance,
summer of twenty twenty two is the first time we
hear that he is helping develop a Hulu show. It's
(27:32):
going to be a comedy, takes place in the Paddock.
It eventually was called Downforce, and he described it as
being Entourage but f one. So that's going on. He
starts to go on a bunch of major US sports podcasts.
He does US late night talk shows.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Please Welcome to the Late Show, Daniel Ricardo.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
He finally goes to met Gala in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
You know that expression, I'm my first rodeo, It actually
is my first Rodio.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
There's a viral clip where he he kind of like
steps in the frame of Van Hathaway, who's then like
I love you, I love f one. You know, he
goes with Tom Brown, who's a major, major designer. So
my point being, he is not having a good time
on the track, but I'm sure he's almost like adding
more pressure to himself because while he's not performing great,
he's really expanding his global and cultural reach and more
(28:21):
people know. Yeah, he's just more famous. Yeah, I think
he's also he likes being famous. I think he also
does take this idea of being you know, an ambassador,
ambassador to the sport seriously, which I'm sure f one
loved that. But also, yeah, it almost further accentuates how
not great things are going at your actual job, aka
being a racing driver. When yeah, you have to show
(28:43):
up to the met galon you're like, I'm like the
unofficial mascot of Red Bull, basically as the quote unquote
third driver at this point, like, I you know, when
did I last win a race? Oh years ago? Like,
you know, just a different setup than than I think
what he would have preferred. When he starts really going
into the cultural spotlight so to speak. Yo, Hi, give
(29:04):
us the ad break. Welcome back to No Grip and
our discussion of the chaotic career of Daniel Ricardo.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
He's doing a lot of good work for F one
as a brand, but his actual boss, the team that
he drives for, is not happy that he's puttson around
doing other things instead of getting his head in the game.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
And also flights between various parts of Europe AKA Monaco
or wherever to like New York, LA. Those are far
like It's not like he's just a hop and skip away, right,
He's doing a lot of traveling at this point that
he on top of the traveling you just have to
do to compete in Formula one. Yeah, so just a
lot of time away from the track and the sim
and all these other things.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
You have to do period. Okay, so we've been.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Alluding to this basically. Yeah, at the end of his
second season with McLaren they say see you later. He
is heading back to Rent Bull. However, he does not
have a seat officially a Red Bull. He becomes their
quote quote third driver. He basically unofficially becomes the chief
marketing vessel for the team because check out and Max
are not the most enthused when it comes to TikTok
(30:10):
videos and sponsorship activations and other engagements, so Danny Rick
gets kind of thrown into all of that stuff instead
of these guys.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
When you put it like that, how you just framed it, Lily,
it sounds so demeanus.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It is that.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, I'm imagining Danny Rick as like the guy with
the flip sign outside of the restaurant, you know what
I mean, or like the chicken costume.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
That they have turned this man into, like they're like
dance monkey dance, like that's what they're making him do.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I was sad for him.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I was like, at what cost Danny, Like, at what
costs are you gonna go be the court jester for
Christian and Red Bull to just be like I'm gonna
be in all the marketing videos and like maybe potentially
have a spot on the team at some point, Like
at this point, go be a celebrity. You've got things
going on, like go do that. But no, he decided
(30:57):
to be the court jester for a little bit, but
paid off, I guess because he went back with Al
Fatari to.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Close out and then we'll get to like the big
post Mortemen post, you know, post F one career stuff.
But I feel like Daniel Ricardo's career then kind of
ends with a whimper instead of a roar, because he
does get a full time seed out of Helfatri, which
again rebrands to Visa Cash App RB now it's Racing Bowls.
But I just called him vcar because I can't deal
with this nonsense, like what I can't you can You
(31:26):
can't have teams called Red Bull and Racing Bowls like
off of this nonsense. Anyway, he starts his twenty twenty
four season with Vcarb et cetera. However, he is out
before the season even ends, and that is where his
F one career ends. So what makes this very awkward
is that there's no real sign until, like right before
(31:46):
it happens that this is his last race. He's still
saying to people, No, no, I'm gonna get another seat in
F one. People say, hey, would you entertain going to
a different motor sports series like Indiecard. He's like, nah,
I'm an F one guy through and through, and so
it just has this very awkward, bizarre end. And to this,
as we've laid out a very interesting I would are
you important F one.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Career devastating stuff, Like I truly was heartbroken for this man.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
It was depressing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I think what was interesting was the reaction online. I
feel like ran the gamut on a spectrum of either
people saying like, I am almost offended that you all
didn't give this man a proper sendoff, and other people
were saying, well, he kind of did it to himself
because he just like wouldn't accept that his career was
just not going anywhere, and if he had maybe taken
control for a guy who was really obsessed with people
liking him and his legacy, like he didn't really take
(32:34):
control of the situation to where it'd be like. So
my example of this, the kind of in contrast is
in twenty twenty two, Sebastian Bettle, four time World drivers Champion,
announces over the summer break that he is retiring from
F one at the end of that twenty twenty two season.
So that gave everyone a lot of time to absorb
except and everyone knew he was like, I am leaving.
(32:55):
I want to hang out with my wife and my
kids and my friends and the b's in my bee
enclosure and that is it. I don't want to see
any of you ever again. And sure enough we've seen
him like three times since he since he left the sport.
So he got these enormous sendoffs. It was very celebratory
from other drivers, from fans, like from teams, like everyone
was really excited for him to move on to the
next chapter.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Thank you for the support, thank you for the messages,
the letters and all the love in general.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And meanwhile, Daniel Ricardo, Yeah, he had completely different set
up at the end there and conclusion to his career.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
As someone who had been so important to the Red
Bull organization. The way v Car fired him so unceremoniously,
like they should have sat him down, had a conversation,
given him the opportunity to do it his way.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
It just feel like nothing quite aligned, and maybe he
couldn't quite make that decision or really accept that his
time was over. Maybe he had like a Tom Brady
moment right of being like okay, guys, like I'm out,
just kidding, I'm back. It's not going well. Okay, I'm
out again, Like I don't know. I think it's it's
very rare that professional ass leads of any sort can
can end their time on their own terms. Yeah, and
(34:04):
so it's interesting to me that he's a guy you'd
think would have that ability or that opportunity if you
really wanted it and just didn't or couldn't or both,
like couldn't take take it or couldn't accept it or whatever. Yeah,
any number of other things were going on.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
At the same time.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, it was just sad to watch someone who you
had such high hopes for to just not accomplish really
anything that they wanted to in the sport.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
He never gets the World Driver's title.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
I really do believe in a parallel universe he has
accomplished that dream. I think that he was good enough
at one point to be able to reach that.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Where was the fork in the road where he should
have or could have really taken a different path.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
I think he shouldn't have left Red Bull when he did.
I think if he had stuck it out for another
one to two years, I think he would have gotten
a championship.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
I think in twenty fourteen, for a brief moment, he
was the third best driver.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And you know what, that's fine, that's great. We are
allowed to have different opinions.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Just to give the quick epilogue of Danna Ricardo. Since
he was unceremoniously dumped, things have been a little wacky.
So the Hulu show he was working on, they actually
did write a pilot, got people cast. Eve Houston was
supposed to be the lead in this with Murray Bartlett.
It proceeds to get dumped and is now not happening.
(35:28):
He's continuing to put out his new clothing lines under
a chante, but understandably probably not as big as it
once was.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I mean, he still has fans in the motorsport space,
but I don't know people going to his pop up
in New York who aren't existing f one fans. And
he did become an ambassador with Ford Racing and is
doing still a lot of marketing and other gigs with them.
He also has grown a very unruly beard that makes
him look like Jason Mansucis from I would say, specifically
(35:58):
during his Adrian Pimento Brooklyn nine to nine era, how
are we feeling about the beard?
Speaker 4 (36:02):
I should I should ask.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I don't
know something about it.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
I love that he's growing a depression beard. Yeah, let
him such a life.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
He doesn't have to be aerodynamic right now, Okay, so
let him grow a beard.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I would say to that point too, he is pretty
much announced he's retired from motor racing. He's basically said
he's out. He's never gone to a different racing series.
He's never tried anything new on that front. He's like,
I'm done. So that is where we generally end with
Daniel Ricardo's career, and this kind of idea of what
happens when you're at the top of the world, but
(36:36):
you also become an unofficial ambathadad to the sport and
also kind of want to be famous, and all these
things happen at once, and also your performance really tanks.
You know, it seems to be a mixed bag by
the end. My last question is do you think Daniel
Ricardo's career is an F one success story, a cautionary tale,
(36:56):
or both.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I do think that he has a lot to be
proud of despite never winning a world championship title. I
think he has cemented himself as an F one legend.
People will be talking about him for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So that's where we leave Daniel Ricardo for now. As
I said at the top of this episode, it's easy
to feel one way or another about Danny's on track
performance over the years, especially towards the end of his career,
but it's hard to argue he didn't have a profound
impact on the culture of the sport. But bringing it
back to Australian representation on the grid, now that Daniel
is gone, we end our tale with Oscar Piastre, who
(37:35):
seems like Danny's polar opposite in almost every conceivable way.
Oscar is all about racing and has zero interest in celebrity.
He probably won't be popping up at the met Gala
anytime soon, or buying a mansion in Hollywood. He's ultra
private about his personal life, and despite his grievances with
McLaren last season, he's doubly committed to winning a championship
with the team this year. Ultimately, maybe a number of
(37:56):
external forces and some bad luck made it harder for
Daniel to really compete for a World Driver's Championship title.
Maybe he was too focused on his off track celebrity
at times when he should have been locked in on
improving his performance, or maybe he just didn't have it.
But does Oscar Piastre have it? Only time will tell
that's our show for today. No Grip is hosted by
(38:19):
me Lily Herman and produced, edited and sound designed by
Johai Metal. Max Miller is our executive producer. We get
additional production support from Poldo Special thanks to Ben Riskin
at Room Tone at Iheartshanta Tone is executive producer. Be
sure to give this show a five star rating and review.
Wherever you're listening, you can follow me at Lily k
Herman on Instagram and follow us at No Grip Podcast
(38:40):
on Instagram and TikTok. We'll see you on March eleventh,
ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix
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