Daniel Ricciardo is still turning up the heat on his Formula 1 rivals while in self-isolation on his parent’s Western Australian farm.
The Aussie star revealed how he is keeping himself busy on his parent’s property since the Formula 1 season was essentially suspended indefinitely.
A series of Grands Prix have been cancelled, including the Australian Grand Prix and the iconic Monaco Grand Prix, while another six races have been postponed indefinitely.
30-year-old Ricciardo was speaking to fans in a live Instagram Q+A organised by his Renault team about his life on the farm when Formula 1 driver Lando Norris popped up and joined the conversation.
The McLaren racer would come to regret that decision.
“He needs new name,” Ricciardo said excitedly as soon as he saw Norris had joined the conversation.
“I feel he’s like the tech-nerd of modern-day society.
“I’m not trying to be mean… but he’s everywhere on all the social platforms.”
Norris, 20, has been a human plaything for Ricciardo since entering Formula 1 in 2019 — and was left crying with laughter when the Aussie last year asked him in the middle of a Formula 1 press conference if he had “any pubes yet”.
Ricciardo completely derailed the 2019 British Grand Prix press conference when he was overheard leaning across the press conference desk to ask if Norris had sprouted some growth around his pelvic region.
The Aussie doesn’t seem like he’s in danger of getting bored any time soon during the season shut down.
In the video, which has been viewed more than three quarters of a million times on Instagram, Ricciardo also sings along to music while trundling along in a tractor — the ultimate contrast to the high-speed skills required to be an F1 driver, Skysports.com reports.
“Dad’s livelihood is earth moving so he has driven those pretty much his whole life. That’s his business,” explained the Aussie. “They prepare all the land to build house, and levels and stuff like that.
“They had a spare on the side, it’s a bit of an older one but they leave it on the farm so I can build things and be a kid.
“I’ll do training and whatever and then I’m not training every hour of the day, when I’ve got some free time I get on that. It’s pretty fun.”
Appearing in typically jovial spirits, Ricciardo said that when he wasn’t training he was watching “Netflix…or looking at the stars”.
“Training is definitely the thing that’s keeping me with that competitive mindset,” he said.
“You get some anger out when you train so that’s my medicine for now.”
He added: “I feel like now it’s kind of perfect to stay in shape as we’re forced to stay in. We can really create a training camp. I think you’re going to see a lot of drivers, and people in general, look pretty fit when this is over, I hope.”
Like most sportspeople, Ricciardo and his fellow F1 drivers are working towards an unknown start point for activities to resume — with all Grands Prix called off until mid-June at the earliest.
And the Renault man admitted the extended wait for racing was starting to hit home.
“I watched on an on-board of Monaco last night and got a little sad,” said Ricciardo of the cancelled 2020 May event. “They’re all going to hurt, Melbourne of course being so close. But we’ll get it back.
So much so, that he has already floated a novel way of approaching the first race of the year when the 2020 campaign does get under way after at least seven months without racing.
“I’m thinking of qualifying last because I think T1 is going to be mayhem!” he joked. “I’m going to watch it all unfold and probably lead the first lap.”
- News.com.au