Danny Ric: The Italian Stallion from Down Under
Before we dive in, why do we love Danny?
Bridgette: I mean, it’s hard to not love him. He’s so “made for TV” with Drive to Survive, it was brilliant that they chose him as their first driver to profile. He is a young, fit, attractive Australian with this amazing joie de vivre appreciation for life. He seems like the kind of person I genuinely want to be friends with and be around.
Monica: I know, I feel like we could just grab beers, sing karaoke and hang. He's an every [wo]man's man, and at the same time you dig into his story and you realize this dude's. got some really raw talent which is commendable in the sport.
Who is Daniel Ricciardo? From the top.
Daniel Joseph Ricciardo was born July 1st, 1989 in Perth, Australia. His parents are Grace and Joe, short for Giuseppe. Their family is Sicilian, which will make sense to anyone who watched Season 2 of White Lotus. Danny actually speaks fluent Italian, proud of that heritage.
He has described Perth as sort of an isolated city that's five years behind Melbourne, which is five years behind LA. So slow, maybe not as cultural, sort of isolating. He’s bought a personal farm in Perth to stay attached to those roots.
His father had an earthmoving company and was a weekend warrior racer, which is where young Danny got into motor vehicles. He started karting at the age of nine, and Danny likes to say that he was competing with kids half his age and losing. Classic Perth 5 years behind, it seems. He discovered he wasn't a prodigy, it was more of a passion.
From the early days, Danny used the number “3” because he idolized Dale Earnhardt (the original), in contrast to the rest of the grid who grew up worshiping Schumacher. Again, that’s Danny Ric marching to his own beat.
He stayed in Australia and raced in the Formula Ford series in ‘05, driving a 15 year old Van Diemen aka not a nice truck. Still, he finished seventh with that scrappy, terrible car.
Our Italian stallion from down under dropped out of school at age 17 to pursue motorsport full-time. What we admire about Danny Ric is – aside from his wonderful personality and the fact that he's a beautiful man to look at – that he's not a paid driver, not a legacy driver, he’s just got sheer talent and grit. And he's built himself up which is really cool.
So that's the early formation of America's favorite driver or at least American female's favorite driver.
Daniel’s late entry into F1
He finally made his way to Europe after dropping out of school – almost a decade after most drivers make that switch. He won the British F3 in 2009 and then became test driver for Toro Rosso, which is now Alpha Tauri, back in 2011.
From there, his career skyrocketed. He made his F1 debut at the British GP, then got promoted to be a full-time Toro Rosso driver in 2012.
This is when he gets branded the “honey badger”, in reference to his racing style. As he explains it, the honey budget is supposed to be the most fearless animal in the animal kingdom. When you look at it, it seems cute and cuddly, but as soon as someone crosses his territory in a way he doesn't like, he turns into a bit of a savage and he'll go after anything. Tigers, python. He turns quickly, but he's a good guy.
Cute but fierce…Danny Ric’s spirit animal the Honey Badger
He also had to find sponsors from the get-go, a lot like Bottas. He has been sponsored by some cool brands through the years including GoPro, Blue Coast, Puma, carsales.com, EA, Melin. He's worked with Beats by Dre, which relates to his passion for music. More recently, he’s entered the world of crypto with OKX, which you've probably seen a bunch of his helmets this year.
Finally, he has a personal sponsorship deal with the Telco Singtel Optus – he's currently labeled as the Chief of Optimism at Optus. Which led us to wonder, what kind of perks does one get for that role at a telco? A free international plan?
Red Bull and the rollercoaster that followed
This is where again, Netflix and Drive to Survive struck TV gold. They found Daniel at the perfect moment in his career.
In 2014, Mark Webber, another Australian driver, retired after being bested by four time world champion Sebastian Vettel. Danny Ric showed he had some serious chops at that point – he's not just personality and looks – so he got promoted to Red Bull. Insanely, he ended up ending Vettel’s run and beating his decorated teammate by 71 points under new regulations! He also won 3 times in that maiden season and finished third in the overall driver’s championship only behind the dominant Mercedes.
So he showed up, stepped up in his first season driving for a serious team. In that era he also invented his infamous “shoey” – his signature victory champagne pour out of his racing shoe – a pour he has forced on many fellow drivers, team principals and representatives.
He was almost like the mascot of Red Bull, dearly beloved by the team. Christian Horner had a close bond with him, as did Helmut Marko. Then, in 2016, enter Max Verstappen.
Danny keeps winning in those next 3 seasons, but Max is clearly starting to take over the team’s focus as the future of Red Bull. Just as Drive to Survive starts, it’s becoming clearer that Danny was going to have to step up or be relegated to the second driver position. That comes to a head in Baku, when Danny rear ends Max and is rumored to be blamed for the incident by the team.
In one of the most epic silly seasons (until 2022!) Daniel surprised everyone including Christian and moved to Renault. It was considered a deeply controversial move given that they have been a solidly midfield team since the Alain Prost days in the 1980s.
His decision coincided with other behind the scenes drama: Red Bull was considering replacing Renault with Honda as their engine provider. Red Bull was having reliability issues and, alongside the stab in the back with Ricciardo, they decided to pivot. That left Renault with less money and less training data, a meaningful disadvantage.
The rumor was that he was following the money to a $35m/year contract with Renault. In more behind the scenes drama, Daniel was being advised by his manager Glenn Beavis. Beavis was allegedly incentivized by the amount of money that Danny made, poised to make up to 20% of his contract value. So he likely pushed Danny towards this contract. The pair had a terrible breakup in a multi-million dollar, yearlong lawsuit. At the peak, Beavis was requesting $18 million dollars in damages. It ended in a confidential settlement and a push for Daniel to make a change.
So while at Renault, he partnered with Nico Hulkenberg during a solid intro year. By the second year he’s getting podiums alongside a new teammate, Esteban Ocon. But the season is overshadowed by the news that he’s pivoting again after only 2 years to McLaren.
Talk about whiplash! Renault team principal Cyril even shed a few tears over it – which seemed fair since he also ended up leaving the team at the end of that season. Daniel got another huge contract for $15 million/year for three years at McLaren.
But he underestimated this new challenge. He joined a team that had already staked its claim with Lando Norris and is known to have a very specific car style. Given the tension he’d faced prior with Verstappen, this felt a surprising move.
His first season at McLaren is overall pretty lackluster although he delivers McLaren’s first win in over a decade at the Italian GP in 2021.
Where we all hope to see Danny…bring on the shoey!
Enter silly season this year. Poor Daniel Ricciardo gets publicly fired a year early from McLaren to make way for fresh blood. Don't feel too bad for the guy – he made $20 million just to be broken up with. He essentially ended 2022 seatless and homeless, clearly humbled and burnt out from the whole ordeal.
A couple of stats before that interlude: Ricciardo has 232 starts, 8 wins, 32 podiums, and 3 pole positions. So he wins 33% of the time from pole. He’s ranked 37th for most career wins in F1 ever. Only the world champs on the grid (Verstappen, Fernando, Vettel and Hamilton) + our boy Bottas have more career wins than him. He's also the fourth most winningest Aussie driver of all time.
Now, it all comes back full circle. Christian Horner swooped in and invented the “third driver” role for Daniel to return to Red Bull.
Q: What is a “third driver”?
A: Amazing branding.
There’s traditionally a reserve driver and or test driver, akin to De Vries’ prior role at Mercedes. They’re the person who would step in if one of the drivers is sick, they know the car inside out, they come to all the races. That is not the third driver, because Red Bull has a separate reserve driver.
Our theory? Daniel basically pays for himself now given his star power. He’s become their brand ambassador and fundraiser. He doesn't need to come to most races, he doesn't really need to have any responsibility. He’ll do simulations and at best, become a pressure point on Checo as a capable backup if Checo ever stops performing as a number two.
It feels like either a full circle moment or a soft landing into retirement for Danny Ric. We hope it's a way to get him back on the grid.
Danny off the grid
Ricciardo lives in many places – like all the drivers he owns a spot in Monaco. He also has two homes back in his homeland of Perth, one of which is the farm. But his main residence seems to be his bougie $13m mansion in LA, which he says reminds him of home.
Danny has always loved America – from all sides. He’s a diehard Buffalo Bills fan, loves cowboy culture in Austin and is laying down roots in California.
And despite his long standing branding as a thirst trap, he’s in a long-term relationship that’s likely based in LA. He’s been dating aspiring actress Heidi Berger since 2019. She is the daughter of Portuguese model Anna Corvo, and 10 time Grand Prix winner Gerard Berger.
In terms of hobbies, he runs the trending Insta account, Daniel3.jpg following Lando.jpg’s footsteps. Danny’s account is more Z though, capturing raw, behind the scenes shots of drivers and scenes from his adventures around the world. Insta seems to be one arena he firmly beat Lando in, with Daniel3.jpg already at 1.3m more followers than Lando.jpg.
Daniel3.jpg, so hot right now
He’s also known to release playlists as part of his collab with Beats by Dre with an eclectic mix of electronic, emo, anything but pop music.
When he’s not racing F1 cars, he’s racing motorbikes or collecting fancy cars. His year off goal is to drive a mini-motorbike from New York to LA and stop at all the different national parks.
The man is also enterprising. Danny has a collab with an Aussie winery, selling bottles for $70/bottle. He’s got a prolific merch line in Ric3 and Enchante, which constantly sell out of their drops. Those names alone – he’s so on point, hitting this trashy, classy, ironic cultural moment on the head.
On the media side, he parlayed his Drive to Survive stardom into a partnership with Hulu. The show is still TBA but it seems likely to be a scripted series based on F1, which he’ll produced. He’s also been on Ellen and the Daily Show.
On the charitable side, he has donated to the Australian Red Cross and the WIRES Wildlife Rescue after the bushfires of the past few years.
This year we’ll finally see if any of those things prove more appealing to him than racing – have they been a distraction? Have they actually fueled him?
A few Danny Ric fun facts for the road
Danny has been appointed a member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Australia Day Honors.
At 5’10” he's within the top 10 percentile of drivers on the grid of height.
He’s made two team principals get tattoos, although rumor has it Zak Brown might be looking into tattoo removal these days.
Danny holds the all-time fastest lap for “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” on Top Gear, above Verstappen, Vettel and Hamilton.
He drove Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) and Christian Horner to their intimate wedding.
He still uses a 15 year old 80 gigabyte iPod that he first bought when he moved to Europe at age 17. He has it preloaded with 5-6,000 songs to warm up before races.
Danny Ric, we love thinking of you rocking out to your 15 year old iPod in a tuxedo driving Ginger spice and Christian off into the sunset.
ICONIC
What’s next for our Italian stallion? We can’t wait to see! Our best bet is that he should start a younger, American version of Top Gear for all celebs - a lifestyle x car x music show, if you will.
