Ricciardo reveals one of his first purchases after becoming an F1 driver

Ricciardo explained that his admiration for McLaren was present from an early age.

“Obviously, growing up, I’ve been a fan of Formula 1. Obviously, being Italian background there’s two teams: there was Ferrari which was a team I remembered and the other one was McLaren. Obviously being a big fan of Senna as well, and Alan Prost, getting to work with him the last couple years at Renault, that was really cool,” said Ricciardo.

Even when he had entered the Formula 1 world as a driver, he could not resist viewing the team as a good option, especially given the good few seasons that the team have recently had. He also spent his early earned racing money on a McLaren, something that Red Bull must not have been very happy with at the time. 

“But then as one of the very first gifts I bought myself once I was in F1 and had enough money to buy a pair of jeans, the first kind of real gift I got was a McLaren road car. That was still when I was at Red Bull, so I had to keep it a little bit under wraps.

“I came here as well to kind of spec the car and check the car out, and even going to the automotive side everyone was like: ‘You know, you can’t be seen here.’ But I’ve been a fan of the brand for quite a long time.”

Eleventh season

The Australian will start his eleventh season in the premier class of motorsport in March this year, something he says he still finds sometimes hard to believe. “I still pinch myself sometimes, I’m entering my 11th season in F1, but it still feels fresh and exciting. That doesn’t wear off."