F1 | Ricciardo: “In Norris I see myself as a young man”

Daniel Ricciardo, speaking on the podcast "Beyond the grid", retraced some stages of his career in Formula 1. In particular, the Australian admitted to seeing some of his traits from when he was younger in Lando Norris, with whom he shared two years at McLaren.

After his debut with Toro Rosso, in 2014 he was promoted to Red Bull and achieved three victories, followed by another five in recent years with the Milton Keynes team. Then in 2018 he moved to Renault for two seasons and finally to McLaren, where he achieved victory in Monza in 2021.

However, the last few years have been difficult for Ricciardo and have had an epilogue that the 33-year-old did not imagine. From next year he will not be on the starting grid but will occupy the role of reserve driver at Red Bull.

Looking back at his early career, Ricciardo added:

“I remember having so much confidence that I thought, 'If I had the car to win, I would have done it.' Then I moved to the top team but I remember loving that period. It works like this, either you get overwhelmed by that environment and the pressure is too much so you feel intimidated, or you just dive in and think, 'I just live for this stuff,' and that's how I felt."

When asked if he saw that 2014 version of himself in Norris, Ricciardo acknowledged that he noticed similar aspects of the youthful approach.

“I've definitely seen some similar things. I think at the end of the day he's just a young driver who's coming up and doing well. When you're young, you feel somehow invincible.
When you're young, you're just carefree. You have less responsibility, you are there and everything works"