Former Racing Bulls driver Daniel Ricciardo has opened up on his “life in the slow lane” after parting ways with Formula One last year. The Australian also revealed his karting venture and how life has changed since being away from the racetrack.
Following his storied F1 career, Ricciardo is engaged in supporting youngsters in motorsports at the grassroots level through the Daniel Ricciardo Series, where young talents compete in DRS Ricciardo Karts across events hosted in the UK.
The previous year saw Ricciardo race alongside Yuki Tsunoda with the goal of a future promotion to Red Bull. However, as a result of poor performance, Racing Bulls decided to drop him after the Singapore Grand Prix for Liam Lawson.
The exit from the Red Bull junior team was also a goodbye to F1. However, it seems as though Ricciardo is enjoying life away from the sport and is engaged in working with young drivers. Speaking to F1 on life after racing, Ricciardo said:
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“All good! I’m just enjoying some life in the slow lane. I mean, it sounds weird saying like retirement when I’m 35 years old, but retirement from at least the world I was living in. It’s cool.
“To be at the kart track… it’s my first time at a race track since I guess Singapore, so quite a few months now. But it’s cool to see the kids… this is why I started karting…
“I’ve had photos with groups of the kids and I can tell the friendships they have, and these friendships will last a lifetime a lot of them. My best friend to this day was a friend that I raced karts with. It’s nice to be back at like the grassroots of it and the most pure form of racing.”
Ricciardo looked back at how he used to look up to his F1 idols, and how young F1 fans are inspired by him today. With his life having come full circle, he added:
“I think now that I’m a bit removed from it and life is not as chaotic, it’s nice to remember what it was like to be at the start of the career. We all have idols and heroes…
“I would be very nervous meeting someone who I admired, so I understand sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming. But everyone seems pretty cool. I guess maybe I’m not the only driver they’ve met before – there’s a lot of F1 fans here!
“I think just to have someone that you want to try and obviously look up to and someone that can inspire you… if I’m able to sprinkle a tiny bit of inspiration or motivation today by being here and having a chat to a few kids, that’s awesome. That’s something I know I appreciated when I was eight, nine, 10 years old.”
The 35-year-old former driver confessed that he never raced for fame or to impress anyone. Having fun was his sole motivation to go racing. Opening up about one piece of advice he wished he had received during his karting days, he said:
“I mean, I think I was quite lucky with the advice. It was always just, ‘Go and have fun’. It wasn’t about trying to impress someone or be someone you’re not. ‘If you do this you’ll be on TV and make money’. It wasn’t about that, it was just, ‘Go and have fun’.
“It kind of helped me also… like racing is scary, you know? I think it helped me at school have a bit more confidence. Everyone’s shy, we all go through things growing up, so I think it kind of gave me confidence in myself as a person, also away from the track. So, that’s something I took from it.
“But as far as the driving goes, honestly it was just about me having fun. I was playing with my friends [at the track], we were riding scooters and stuff, and my dad was always dragging me like, ‘The kart’s on the grid, put your helmet on!’ The karting was kind of secondary a lot of the time. It was just to be in this environment with friends.”