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Former F1 world champion Damon Hill recalled that he first met Daniel Ricciardo in 2009 when he was an Australian in BRDC Formula 3. Ricciardo recently joined AlphaTauri and will be returning to F1 for the Hungarian Grand Prix. He replaced Nyck de Vries, who had a poor performance throughout the first half of the season.
Speaking on F1 Nation, Hill first explained how most Formula One fans would be delighted to see Ricciardo return to the sport simply because of his smiling and positive personality.
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone feels negative about Daniel Ricciardo coming back. I mean, he’s such a character. He worked on that side of things. I mean, it’s his nature… kind of vivacious and his huge smile,” he said.
Moreover, the former F1 The world champion remembered the day he saw the Australian for the first time. Back in 2009, when Hill was president of the BRDC, he first saw Ricciardo smiling broadly to accept an award from him for winning the championship.
“I can remember the first time I ran into Daniel Ricciardo when I was president of the BRDC. We were giving out trophies, and he was in Formula 3. And this guy is jumping on stage, and he’s got this three-foot-wide smile. And I thought, well, he looks like he’s enjoying life. Hill added.
Ricciardo went into the Formula Renault series in 2010 and 2011, before entering F1 with HRT in 2011. He was a full-time F1 driver in 2012 with Toro Rosso (currently AlphaTauri), a team he will drive for again in 2023.
Daniel Ricciardo was on hand to take the AlphaTauri seat
Daniel Ricciardo recently spoke about how he felt when Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko approached him about the seat at AlphaTauri.
At first, the Australian expressed how nervous he was before saying he was all set to take a chance.
In an exclusive interview with F1 presenter Lawrence Pareto, Ricciardo said:
“I didn’t really need to think too much about it, you know, in terms of… I think with being back in this family I feel a lot… all over again.”
And those were the calls that, you know, I used to get, and those were kind of moments that were kind of thrown in front of us. So, there was no question that I would say yeah, it was just, yeah, I think the real ‘Well, it’s going to happen very soon’ “.
Red Bull mainly wanted to see where Daniel Ricciardo’s pace was with the Pirelli tire test that took place at Silverstone. Once they realized he was still capable enough, he was given the AlphaTauri seat.
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