Daniel Joseph Ricciardo ( "Ricardo", ; born 1 July 1989) is an Australian and Italian racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Scuderia AlphaTauri under the Australian flag. He has achieved 8 Grand Prix victories and 32 podiums in Formula One.
Ricciardo made his debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix with the HRT team as part of a deal with Red Bull Racing, for whom he was test driving under its sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso. He joined Toro Rosso in 2012 full-time after the team changed its driver lineup and drove a Ferrari-powered car for them in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, Ricciardo was promoted to Red Bull as a replacement for the retiring Mark Webber alongside Sebastian Vettel. In his first season with Red Bull under Renault power, Ricciardo finished third in the championship with his first three Formula One wins, in Canada, Hungary, and Belgium.
After two years without a victory, Ricciardo returned to the top of the podium at the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix, eventually sealing third in the championship for the second time in three years at the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix. He won again for Red Bull at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2017 and the Chinese and Monaco Grands Prix in 2018. After 2018, Ricciardo signed with Renault and raced for them in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He joined McLaren for the 2021 and Formula One seasons. He obtained his only race win and podium with McLaren at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. After the 2021 season, Ricciardo was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Australia Day Honours. He left McLaren at the end of 2022 and became the third driver for Red Bull for the 2023 Formula One World Championship. He replaced the outgoing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri after the tenth round of the season, on loan from Red Bull Racing.
Early life
Daniel Joseph Ricciardo was born on 1 July 1989 in Perth, Western Australia, to Italian-Australian parents. His father, Giuseppe "Joe" Ricciardo, was born in Ficarra (Messina), but relocated to Australia with his family aged just seven. Ricciardo's mother, Grace was born in Australia, but had parents originally from Casignana (Calabria). Ricciardo also has a sister; Michelle. Growing up in Duncraig, one of Perth's northern suburbs, Ricciardo's earliest memories of motorsports were of his father racing at the nearby Barbagallo Raceway in Wanneroo. Raised Catholic, he attended high school at Newman College. He started karting at the age of 9.
Early career
Karting, Formula Ford and Formula BMW
Ricciardo started karting at the age of nine as a member of the Tiger Kart Club (TKC) and entered numerous karting events. In 2005, he entered the Western Australian Formula Ford championship driving a 15-year-old Van Diemen, finishing eighth by season's end. Towards the end of the season, Ricciardo took a leased 13-year-old Van Diemen across to Sandown Raceway in Melbourne to compete at the national Formula Ford series, but his aging car was uncompetitive, and he finished 16th, 17th and retired during the weekend's three races. After finishing sixth in 2007 Formula Renault 2.0 Italia, Ricciardo was selected by Red Bull Junior Team.
Formula Three
During the mid-part of the 2008 season, Ricciardo made his Formula Three debut at the Nürburgring, joining SG Formula's Formula 3 Euro Series team. Despite only a short amount of experience in the car, Ricciardo qualified in eighth for the first race, which later converted into sixth in the race after James Jakes and Christian Vietoris stalled on the grid. But he struggled in the reverse-grid race, finishing just fifteenth.
Ricciardo moved to the British Formula 3 Championship for the 2009 season driving for Carlin Motorsport. Ricciardo continued his partnership with Carlin by heading to the Macau Grand Prix with the team.
Formula Renault 3.5 Series
On 30 October 2009, Ricciardo was signed by Tech 1 to compete in the 2010 season. He had competed with the team at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal in 2009 and was the teammate to Brendon Hartley, another driver who drove for Tech 1 over the season.