{"id":368269,"date":"2025-08-23T22:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T22:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/368269\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T22:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T22:25:15","slug":"riccardo-reveals-the-honey-badgers-origins-and-reason-for-f1-downfall-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/368269\/","title":{"rendered":"Riccardo reveals the &#8216;honey badger&#8217;s&#8217; origins&#8230; And reason for F1 downfall too?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/daniel-ricciardo\" title=\"Daniel Ricciardo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> has finally lifted the lid on the story behind his famous \u2018honey badger\u2019 nickname \u2013 and this revelation may help explain the reason behind his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">F1<\/a> downfall.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Australian first joined the grid with backmarker HRT in 2011 before stints at Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and, most recently, Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2014 and 2018, Ricciardo established himself as one of the sport\u2019s most exciting talents with daring overtakes and fearless racecraft, traits that earned him the \u2018honey badger\u2019 tag, precisely.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at Ray White\u2019s Connect conference, Ricciardo explained how the animal became his alter ego.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHoney badgers are cuddly and cute, super good-looking,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cBut when something takes what\u2019s theirs, they fight back, and I think that was sort of like my alter ego when I got behind the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since his departure from Racing Bulls after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, and after being linked to a seat at Cadillac early on, Ricciardo has announced his retirement from F1.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20240922-0454.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto\" alt=\"Ricciardo at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2024\"\/>Ricciardo not a &#8216;natural born killer&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on his career, he admitted that developing a \u201ckiller instinct\u201d never came naturally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have had a competitor in me since when I was a kid; I was always competitive in everything I did. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the killer instinct I needed to develop and work on extracting it out of myself. I\u2019m naturally more easy-going,\u201d Ricciardo said.<\/p>\n<p>He credited his early trainer, Stu Smith, with teaching him how to summon that mentality when it mattered most.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of my first trainers at the time, Stu Smith, he really brought it out of me. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I did have to work at it, but when I let it out it did feel nice \u2013 it\u2019s nice to be a badass sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ricciardo couldn&#8217;t be a killer 24\/7<\/p>\n<p>Yet Ricciardo admitted it wasn\u2019t sustainable. \u201cI would use too much energy trying to be tough all the time because it\u2019s not natural for me. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would see other drivers who had that killer instinct from morning to night and I wished I could be like them. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think people would see me laughing and joking, and they would see that as weakness and underestimate me. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I would put the helmet on and think, \u2018Okay, now it\u2019s time to be tough like the others\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo has finally lifted the lid on the story behind his famous \u2018honey badger\u2019 nickname \u2013 and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-368269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115080431124212673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368269","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=368269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}