Ricciardo doesn't want to be The Entertainer: 'Racing now my priority'

This led to a somewhat embarrassing situation last season when Ricciardo was asked by a local journalist in Austin whether he drives in F1 mainly for PR reasons and much less because of his racing skills? Daniel Ricciardo, the entertainer, instead of Daniel Ricciardo, the driver. Looking back on that moment in the American city, the veteran driver immediately says: "Aw!"

In a way, it was a wake-up call for Ricciardo, who was not aware enough that people now saw him mainly as someone who makes jokes. "I've definitely cut back on a lot of things outside of racing, for sure. I still have some other interests outside of the sport, which I'm involved in, and I enjoy, but I've minimised a lot. And I'm really just trying to make sure that… I think it always has been, but to obviously make the racing the priority."

Ricciardo would easily lose himself

With the increasingly crowded calendar, it is increasingly difficult for Ricciardo to find time for things unrelated to Formula 1 anyway. When the Australian cannot be found at the track anywhere in the world, he works up a sweat in a gym or rests. "It's easy to get a little bit – I don't even want to say lost – but there's just so much going on. And there's so many things that you can be doing, and it's all really exciting and really fun," he said.

"But I think probably having time off for the start of the year, I realised that I was probably just doing too much sometimes and probably not prioritising myself in terms of my body and my recovery and all that. So yeah, in a long way of saying it, just try to focus on that," Ricciardo said.