Daniel Ricciardo on Max Verstappen driving style: He just didn't care

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo on Verstappen driving style: He just didn't care

The Australian reckon his old colleague's successes in F1 come from his lack of need to please others

Martin Macdonald

Friday 17 April 2020 10:10

Make us your Google favorite

Daniel Ricciardo has provided an insight as to what it was like to partner Max Verstappen when the pair were together at Red Bull, and says the Dutchman, right from the start, “didn’t care” about much else apart from racing as fast as possible.

Verstappen is viewed as one of the drivers to take the sport into the next decade and a future world champion, but throughout his career has received criticism for his swashbuckling and sometimes cavalier attitude on the track.

Even though he got plenty of flack for his personality and driving style, Ricciardo believes this is ultimately what makes his former team-mate stand apart.

Article continues under video

“I think a lot of it was his age at the time, that had its downsides with a little bit of immaturity but it had its upsides,” the Renault man told Mark Howard on The Howie Games podcast.

“He really just didn’t care about anything, about annoying people or about the risks.

“It was like, ‘I’m just going to go out there and drive this thing as hard as I can’. “He probably didn’t understand the responsibility … so he raced with a lot of free will and that worked out pretty well for him a handful of times.

“When he joined the team, really from day one he just got out of the pits and really ragged the car and wasn’t really caring about protecting the equipment or anything.

“It was just 100 or nothing and that was cool because a lot of the time I would build up to it and sometimes I was a bit too nice as well on the car. “We certainly pushed each other a bit harder.”

Ricciardo and Verstappen were team-mates up until the start of the 2019 season as the former jumped ship to Renault, while the Red Bull driver was joined by Pierre Gasly and then Alexander Albon.