Former F1 world champion Damon Hill has recalled he first met Daniel Ricciardo way back in 2009 when the Australian was in BRDC Formula 3. Ricciardo recently joined AlphaTauri and will be returning to F1 at the Hungarian GP. He has replaced Nyck de Vries, who was underperforming throughout the first half of the season.
Speaking on F1 Nation, Hill initially explained how most F1 fans would be delighted to see Ricciardo return to the sport simply because of his smiling and positive persona.
“Yeah, I don’t think anybody feels negative about Daniel Ricciardo coming back. I mean, he’s such a personality. He’s worked on that side of things. I mean, it’s his natural…kind of vivacious self and his massive smile,” he said.
Furthermore, the Former F1 world champion remembered the day when he first saw the Australian. Back in 2009, when Hill was the president of the BRDC, he first saw Ricciardo smiling widely to accept an award from him for winning the championship.
“I can remember the first time I came across Daniel Ricciardo when I was the president of the BRDC. We were giving out awards, and he was in Formula 3. And this guy jumps up on the stage, and he’s got this smile the size of, you know, three feet across. And I thought, Well, he seems to be enjoying life,” Hill added.
Ricciardo went on to the Formula Renault series in 2010 and 2011, before entering F1 with HRT in 2011. He was a full-time F1 driver in 2012 with Toro Rosso (currently AlphaTauri), a team for which he will be driving once again in 2023.
Daniel Ricciardo was ready to take the AlphaTauri seat
Daniel Ricciardo recently spoke about how he felt when Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko called him regarding the seat at AlphaTauri.
At first, the Australian expressed how nervous he was before stating that he was completely ready to take the opportunity.
In an exclusive interview with F1 presenter Lawrence Barretto, Ricciardo said:
“I did not really need to think much about it, you know, in terms of… I think as well being back in this family I feel so much… yeah, I feel like I’m kind of just going through it all again.”
“And these were the calls that, you know, I used to get, and this was kind of the moments that used to kind of thrown in front of us. So, there was no question that I was going to say yes, it was just, yeah I guess the reality of ‘okay it is going to happen pretty soon,'” he added.
Red Bull essentially wanted to learn where Daniel Ricciardo’s pace was through the Pirelli tire test that happened at Silverstone. As soon as they realized that he was still capable enough, he was given the AlphaTauri seat.
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