Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo is one of the most popular drivers Formula 1 has produced — partly because of his speed, partly because of his personality, and partly because he brought the tradition of drinking champagne from a sweaty racing boot (the 'shoey') to a global audience. He lives in Los Angeles, makes wine, and is probably the most socially skilled person to have raced an F1 car.
Daniel Ricciardo is Formula 1's most instinctively joyful driver — a personality so genuinely warm and publicly delightful that it has occasionally obscured how fast he actually is. His overtaking of Max Verstappen at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, executed with a calmness that made it look rehearsed, produced what may be the best post-race interview in recent memory: a man who had just delivered one of the drives of the season, celebrating with the unbothered glee of someone who had just won a pub quiz. The emotional authenticity is real; everyone who works with him says so.
Ricciardo grew up in Perth, Western Australia — a city further from the Formula 1 circus than almost anywhere on earth — and his connection to that origin has remained strong. He has invested in a winery in Margaret River in Western Australia, an interest that reflects genuine enthusiasm rather than tax optimisation. He visits regularly, speaks knowledgeably about viticulture, and has said that the winery gives him something to care about that exists entirely outside the result of the next qualifying session.
His career path after Red Bull — through Renault, McLaren, and back into the Red Bull ecosystem at RB — has been defined by a persistent gap between his natural speed and the machinery available to him. He has spoken candidly about the psychological challenge of that gap, about the difficulty of maintaining belief when results do not match ability, and about the help he has sought to navigate it. The honesty is characteristic: where other drivers deflect, Ricciardo tends to simply describe what is actually happening.
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The shoey — drinking from a sweaty racing boot on the podium — was Ricciardo's signature victory celebration, inspired by Australian surf culture where drinking from a shoe is a party tradition. He performed it himself and persuaded others (including Sebastian Vettel, Mick Jagger, and various team principals) to join him. It became one of the most talked-about celebrations in F1 history, partly because of the participants' evident reluctance.
Ricciardo launched his own wine brand, Enchanté, sourcing grapes from the Margaret River wine region in Western Australia. He is a genuine wine enthusiast rather than a brand-attacher — he has spoken knowledgeably about viticulture and winemaking in multiple interviews and has been involved in the production decisions. The wine has received respectable reviews.
Ricciardo relocated to Los Angeles and has spoken about it as genuinely suiting his personality — the climate, the culture, and the Californian approach to life work well for him. He has been photographed at entertainment events, sporting events, and social gatherings across the city, and appears to have built a genuine social life there rather than existing in an F1 bubble.
Golf is one of Ricciardo's consistent recreational activities. He plays wherever his schedule allows and has been photographed on courses around the world. He approaches it competitively — he has spoken about the frustrations of the sport in terms that make clear he genuinely wants to be good at it, not just to be seen playing.
Ricciardo's enthusiasm for music spans multiple genres and he has attended festivals including Glastonbury and various US events. His social media reflects genuine engagement with music culture rather than scheduled promotional content. He has met musicians and artists in his LA life and maintains friendships in the entertainment world.
Ricciardo's smile and good humour are genuine but also, by his own account, sometimes at odds with the mental demands of competitive racing at the highest level. He has spoken candidly about the difficulty of maintaining positivity through difficult periods — his time at McLaren in particular — and about whether his genial exterior sometimes prevented him from processing negative emotions in useful ways. The honesty about this has been widely appreciated.