Ricciardo overwhelmed by F1 having not dominated as junior

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo has admitted to being overwhelmed by Formula 1 when he first entered the sport having not dominated on his way up through the junior categories.

The Australian made his Formula 1 debut with the Hispania Racing team at the 2011 British Grand Prix, making eleven race starts for the outfit having been placed in the team by the Red Bull young driver programme.

Ricciardo stepped up to Toro Rosso in 2012 before moving on to the senior Red Bull team in 2013, where at the Canadian Grand Prix he scored his first Grand Prix victory before going on to win two more races that year in Belgium and Hungary.

The Australian moved to Renault in 2019, spending two seasons with the team, his best result being a pair of third-place finishes at the Nurburgring and at the Imola circuit.

Ricciardo now finds himself at McLaren, a veteran of the Formula 1 grid, but reflecting on those earlier days as he made his Formula 1 breakthrough, the bubbly Aussie took some time to find his footing.

Joining a grid that featured former World Champions like Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, Ricciardo faced a challenge to discover his self-belief, having not won a junior title beyond British Formula 3.

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