{"id":342078,"date":"2025-08-13T20:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/342078\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T20:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:44:10","slug":"what-daniel-ricciardo-said-about-max-verstappen-in-rare-post-f1-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/342078\/","title":{"rendered":"What Daniel Ricciardo said about Max Verstappen in rare post-F1 interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Ricciardo has largely stepped away from the spotlight following his replacement by Liam Lawson after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the Australian driver recently joined a conference, where he had nothing but praise for former Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Daniel Ricciardo admits he\u2019s \u2018proud\u2019 of Max Verstappen<\/p>\n

The world hasn\u2019t seen much of Daniel Ricciardo since the driver was replaced at Racing Bulls by Liam Lawson following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Australian driver first got his start in Formula 1 courtesy of his ties to the Red Bull Junior Programme, which enabled him to kick off his career with HRT in 2011 before moving to Toro Rosso the following year.<\/p>\n

He was soon promoted to Red Bull Racing in 2014 and instantly proved his skill by winning three races that season and finishing third overall in the championship during the very start of an era of Mercedes dominance. There Ricciardo remained until the conclusion of the 2018 season, after which point he moved to Renault for two years, then McLaren for two years.<\/p>\n

In 2023, however, it looked as if he\u2019d be out of a ride \u2014 at least, until AlphaTauri (previously Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls) signed him again as a replacement for Nyck de Vries.<\/p>\n

More PlanetF1.com deep dives:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Uncovered: The technical details behind F1 2025\u2019s design secrets<\/a><\/p>\n

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Beginning in 2016, Max Verstappen joined Red Bull Racing. He and Ricciardo were teammates for two years before Ricciardo jetted off for new horizons \u2014 but they shared a track during Verstappen\u2019s dominant era.<\/p>\n

This past week, Ricciardo was one of several celebrity guests appearing at the Ray White Connect 2025 conference, which brings together real-estate professionals as well as various folks in the leadership space.<\/p>\n

Asked about his relationship with his former teammate, Ricciardo responded, \u201cSeeing Max go on to be, four-time World Champion? I lose count. He\u2019s won that many now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut four-time World Champion, like, I\u2019m proud. I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay, that was cool. That\u2019s a team-mate I had, that was someone who I shared a lot of time and track with.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very generous response from a driver whose own career took several unexpected twists and turns \u2014 someone who is also trying to find meaning in this new phase of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I haven\u2019t been shaving my face,\u201d the Australian said on stage during the conference. \u201cThe beard is my comfort right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year has been a bit of self-exploration. I lived this crazy high-speed life for so long, and this year I\u2019ve sat into a little bit of stillness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of time, I\u2019ve done some hiking. I was in Alaska a few weeks ago and didn\u2019t get mauled by a grizzly which was a bonus. I\u2019ve been trying to figure out who I am other than this race car driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come to appreciate the little things more and the meaning of the importance of family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been driven and that sometimes leads you to being selfish, so I\u2019m trying to learn to be a bit more selfless and become a better listener.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also took a moment to reflect on what it was like to miss out on achieving his former goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I would have this career,\u201d Ricciardo admitted. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be here, y\u2019know? That\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, my dream was to be World Champion, and there were years along the way where I genuinely felt like it was gonna happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got close. That\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were a World Champion sitting here today, would it change how I feel, or how I view myself, or anything like that? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe my ego would be big. We don\u2019t want that!<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0How Racing Bulls has stepped out from the shadow of Red Bull<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo has largely stepped away from the spotlight following his replacement by Liam Lawson after the 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[859,4199,707,4200,225,1073,12,226,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-342078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-red-bull","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115023410967338303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}