Newey was almost intimidating for Ricciardo: 'All tough questions'
Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull Racing and this, of course, is causing a shockwave in Formula 1. Daniel Ricciardo also reacted to the departure of the top designer he worked with during his time at Red Bull Racing.
"It's funny, because there I would say there's more regular like bombshells, you know it probably always has been in F1, so I don't know if anything a bombshell anymore, if you know what I mean because anything can happen," Ricciardo describes the current state of affairs in F1. Ricciardo is right in that respect, with 2024 alone seeing the transfer of Lewis Hamilton, the matter surrounding Christian Horner and now Newey's departure.
What it's like to work with Newey
"Obviously Adrian's been at Red Bull for so long so you know it's it's very rare that something I'd say lasts forever so to speak so obviously we don't really know where he's going to go or what he's going to do but yeah, obviously his time there was amazing and I was I look at it yeah privileged to work with him privileged to drive several of his race cars. Even my dad, when I signed for Red Bull, he said 'Oh, you're gonna get to work with Adrian', like that was exciting for him as well"
Daniel Ricciardo made the move to Red Bull Racing in 2014, where he would race in Newey-designed cars through 2018. With those Newey-designed cars, Ricciardo won seven Grands Prix. Ricciardo acknowledges that Newey also left a huge impression on him as a personality during that period.
"Just walking into his office it's kind of intimidating, there’s a big design board, and he's probably going to ask me things that I have no idea what he's talking about so it's a little bit like, 'I hope he doesn't ask me too many questions, let's just keep this fairly basic'. But he's a big motorsport fan. He is deep down like us and very involved in the sport. That shows how much he loves it,'' concluded the Visa Cash App RB driver.