Daniel Ricciardo - F1's Mr. Nice Guy

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  • All smiles: Daniel Ricciardo.

    In the world of Formula One, ruthlessness is believed to be directly proportional to success.

    Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost recently said: “Drivers who win championships must be selfish, ruthless and egotistical. This is what winners are like. So I always tell people: ‘please bring me b******s for my cockpits’.”

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    But Daniel Ricciardo’s persona is enough to make you question that theory.

    The ever-smiling Aussie, who moved up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull this season, is the only driver not named Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg to win a race in 2014. And he didn’t win just one, he won three, which were the first of his career.

    Ricciardo’s seamless transition to the big leagues has seen him rocket to third place in the drivers’ standings this year, out-perform­ing his Red Bull team-mate, and reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel.

    And he’s made that ascension without los­ing his reputation of being the friendliest guy in the paddock. But if selfish, ruthless and egotistical characters are the ones that win championships, does Ricciardo feel he has what it takes to be the best?

    “I think probably the message is the nice guys don’t always win. They win sometimes but not always and it’s those times, the not always times, you need more of a ruthless streak,” the 25-year-old says.

    “I think this year I found a bit of that, while still being respectful of the people I work with and my environment, I’ve taken charge a little bit more in things that maybe I want, I believe in. You do need this, otherwise it’s easy to get pushed over – and that’s in any form of sport or life.”

    Not many can enter a team that includes a four-time world champion and end up finishing the season higher than him in the standings.

    But Ricciardo has proved that being ‘Mr Nice Guy’ can sometimes pay off as he admits that quickly developing strong relationships with members of the Red Bull family has greatly helped his transition.

    “I was really fortunate that the people I was set up to work with made life easier for me,” he explains.

    “I think the biggest thing which allowed me to get up to speed quickly is that I didn’t really have the pressure. Red Bull didn’t put the pressure on me saying ‘we want to see you by Melbourne qualifying within a tenth of Seb’, they didn’t set targets like this. They just knew if I was able to get into it and build up the way I wanted then that’s the way I would hopefully get the results and that’s what worked.”

    Establishing those strong relationships with the team is something he says he learnt from Vettel. The pair seem to get along quite well and shared a few laughs at a promotional event for the team’s sponsors, Infiniti, in Dubai before the weekend.

    Asked what was the biggest thing he picked up from Vettel this season, Ricciardo says: “I think the way he brings the people who work with him close to him. The way he, in a way, demands and gets what he wants.

    “We’re never happy with our cars, we always want something better from it, I think the way he approaches that… he’s quite ruthless but also quite fair at the same time. He’s got a good balance of being serious and looking the team in the eye and saying ‘I need this’, but at the same time he earns their respect by acting that way.”

    It is no secret that Vettel has struggled with the RB10 this season and you wouldn’t blame him if he acted out a little after getting con­stantly outperformed by the less experienced Ricciardo. After all, how do you go from win­ning four straight titles to fighting for fourth in the championship?

    But Ricciardo insists Vettel has been a respectful team-mate in the wake of the Aus­sie’s fantastic results.

    “I wouldn’t say surprising but I was pleased with the way he (Vettel) showed respect to me after my victories,” Ricciardo revealed.

    “In Canada he obviously was really, genu­inely happy for me to get my first win.

    “But even Spa (where Vettel finished fifth), he still came up to me and basically gave me compliments and it seemed genuine.

    “I think the way he handled the more dif­ficult situations from his side, he handled them very well and I could probably learn something from that. It’s easy to be grumpy and miserable when someone beats you so I think he handled that very well.”

    Still it is Ricciardo who has stolen the limelight at Red Bull this year. Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson tweeted earlier this month that he reckons Ricciardo is the best driver in F1 and GQ Australia named him Sportsman of the Year.

    “Obviously I’ve got a bit more of a follow­ing now,” Ricciardo continues. “A few more fans through my results, but I don’t feel like I’m a celebrity or anything like that. I think my day to day life is still the same.”

    Looking ahead to next season, like every other team on the grid, Red Bull will be looking to close the gap on the dominant Mercedes. The dynamic in the team might change for Ricciardo with Vettel leaving to Ferrari and the young Daniil Kvyat joining from Toro Rosso.

    “I definitely feel there’s a bit more respon­sibility now that I’m the older guy in the team,” says the Perth native.

    “The relationships I’ve made this year, I feel like it’s easier for me to share my input and speak to the big guys.

    “So I’ll be busy over the winter and for the team’s sake and my sake I want the car to be as quick as possible. So I’ll do what I can to help that out.

    “I’ve got faith that we can close the gap. I think obviously Mercedes have continued to get stronger which is not what we were hoping. But I’d like to think now they have caressed that pinnacle and obviously we feel that we’ve got a lot more to gain. With a stronger winter which is pretty much inevi­table, we should definitely close the gap.”

    Ricciardo reflects…

    His highlights of the year…

    Bahrain was probably the first weekend that people saw ‘maybe this kid can overtake after all, he’s got a bit of confidence in the car now’. Monaco was cool, the first prac­tice session I got into it straight away, the team could see that I was willing to push the car and handle it. And of course the victories were good!

    What he has learnt since he became a winner in F1…

    It’s mainly just handling the pressure. When I took the lead in Canada I was aware I was leading the race and your heart rate goes up, you know you’re leading a Formula One race with one or two laps to go and that basically it’s up to you. It’s controlling your emotions and just still doing the basics right.

    Which of his three race wins was the best?

    Canada and Budapest were more exciting victories, but Spa was more difficult, just for the fact that from very early on the lead was mine to lose.

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