AUSTIN, Texas – An unfamiliar noise boomed through the paddock of the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday morning. It was a rougher, more haunted, and gritty sound than the V6 engines of the Formula 1 cars that will contest the US Grand Prix this weekend.
It was set on fire by Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of childhood hero Dale Earnhardt’s 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo NASCAR – a bright blue and yellow stock car painted in Wrangler’s colors. He did a handful of laps as part of his 20-minute show run and burned out some of the early comers in the COTA stands.
Wearing an open-visor helmet, his ear-to-ear grin could be seen through the windshield as he drove across the track.
Before getting into the car, he had the energy of a kid locked in a candy store on Christmas Day. He was still smiling when he got out of the car 20 minutes later.
“I’m out of breath,” Ricciardo told the television cameras when the run was over. “I worked really hard on this bike.
“It was cool. Just hearing and just changing gears, you just felt like you really had everything under control.
Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of Dale Earnhardt’s 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Dan Istitene – Formula 1 / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“You have to wrestle with it. But when I say that, it went a lot better than I thought. It was really cool. I felt like I could get into it. I wasn’t comfortable catching the oversteer, you have to catch the bike “and I’m not really used to that. I got a little out of me. “
Ricciardo was standing next to the car’s owner, his boss, McLaren CEO Zak Brown, as he gave the television interviews. Brown is the man who made it happen. Earlier this year, Brown had promised his new signing a run in the car when he clinched his first podium for the team.
Ricciardo was one more thing than just a podium, he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza last month, McLaren’s first win since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, and Brown kept his promise.
“We said podium, we didn’t really say victory, so I still expect something else for victory,” said Ricciardo jokingly.
Brown laughed and replied, “He’s trying to keep the car now!”
The story of how Browns came about is interesting in itself. Long before he became CEO of one of the most famous Formula 1 teams, Brown took part in the 1983 Budweiser 400 at the Riverside International Raceway in California. Ricky Rudd won the race for Richard Childress Racing. The following year, Rudd’s car was converted to Earnhardts when he replaced Rudd on the team, with a fresh paint job when Wrangler became Earnhardt’s sponsor.
Three years ago, Brown, an avid racing car collector, finally got the chance to buy the Chevrolet himself, and he couldn’t turn it down.
Daniel Ricciardo will do a handful of laps behind the wheel of NASCAR on Saturday morning. Clive Mason – Formula 1 / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“This is a special car,” said Brown at a press conference on Friday.
Ricciardo, who saw the car for the first time on Thursday, agreed and was amazed at how eye-catching the blue and yellow car looked in person and how simple the car design was – a far cry from the remarkably technical F1 cars that Ricciardo has seen since its debut in the Year 2011 runs.
“It’s kind of an art. It always looks better,” Ricciardo told ESPN on Friday, the night before the show. “It really is. Historic racing cars are art today.
“The state it was in is really cool. The paintwork everything, it pops so well. It’s great like … rectangular. There isn’t a lot of aerodynamics! It’s very square.
“If you imagine how a ten year old would draw a car – that’s how they would draw it, rectangle, square, whatever. It looks like that, but it’s really cool. “
1 relatives
F1 drivers are used to a tight cockpit seat, but Ricciardo admitted that he was surprised at how close he was to the steering wheel.
“It’s tight. The distance from the body to the wheel is really narrow. It’s closer than in Formula 1, it’s really tight, so that you feel a bit cramped here with your shoulders. But obviously the footwell and the rest of the way are more open The seat is relatively narrow “But apart from the fact that the bike is very close, you have a little more space.”
Ricciardo demonstrated how he would drive it, stretching his elbows so they were level with his chin and moving them around like he was driving a car. “It’s kind of like that!”
Even before he got in the car, he was enjoying the prospect of tackling the Monte Carlo’s manual transmission – even seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has said this would be a feature of his Formula 1 dream car.
“Four-speed stick,” said Ricciardo. “I can’t wait to do that. That’s the good.”
Daniel Ricciardo entertains the fans by sacrificing a set of Good Year tires at Turn 1. Chris Graythen / Getty Images
For Ricciardo, the trade fair was really a dream. The earnhardt stuff isn’t just for show; Ricciardo’s affection for the seven-time NASCAR champion goes way back. Most F1 drivers will point to a different F1 driver as their youth hero – Lewis Hamilton is Ayrton Senna, Sebastian Vettel is Michael Schumacher – but for Ricciardo his racing idols were his father Joe, who was competitive in Europe and Australia, and Earnhardt.
As a budding kart driver in Perth, Ricciardo collected diecast models of Earnhardt’s cars and some of Dale Earnhardt Junior’s that Ricciardo met at a NASCAR race in 2018.
In response to a tweet from Associated Press’ Jenna Fryer, Earnhardt Jr. tweeted on Saturday his appreciation for the awe Ricciardo has for his father.
I am happy for Daniel. I am also grateful for the way he celebrates my father. That makes a lot of fathers, family members and fans smile.
– Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) October 23, 2021
Funnily enough, the Wrangler car was actually one of the few Earnhardt models he’d never owned.
Ricciardo can remember exactly where he was when he found out Earnhardt was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500.
“I have a very photographic memory,” he told ESPN when asked about the day. “I literally had the picture when you said it. We had Teleinfo on TV, Teletext, whatever you call it. I went to the Sports tab because it was one night for us.
“I used to record the races and the records were screwed up so I came halfway through the race. I was angry. So I went to teletext, went to sports, then to NASCAR, and it was ‘Legend Earnhardt Killed’ I could don’t believe i couldn’t understand how.
“I remember then seeing the crash and it didn’t look that big. [Tony] Stewart had a pretty big crash earlier in the same race so I wondered how? I have this picture.
“I remember walking down the corridor crying and picking up the phone and calling my friend who took me to Earnhardt’s and we cried on the phone together. I went to the office, sat under the desk, and called him. We just cried. I have all these memories. “
Earnhardt had first caught Ricciardo’s attention as he had already dialed number three in the late 1990s to go go-karting as it was the number of the Ricciardo family home in Perth.
In 2014 Ricciardo chose number three as his Formula 1 career number as a nod to Earnhardt one).
The influence of Earnhardt on Ricciardo can be clearly seen. Ricciardo has built a reputation for being the best overtaker in Formula One – after winning the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix, a victory based on a series of brilliant passes, he famously said he decided to “lick the stamp and mail it “.
Earlier this season, Ricciardo said he wanted to be the F1 version of The Intimidator, the nickname Earnhardt received for the uncompromising approach to racing and the fear it instilled in his rivals. His rendition is The Honey Badger, an animal known for its aggression and tenacity.
Earnhardt was most associated with the nickname The Intimiadtor starting in 1987, when the Wrangler colors were replaced with GM Goodwrench’s stealth black. The black car with the huge number three is perhaps Earnhardt’s most iconic look.
Before the race this weekend, Ricciardo unveiled a tribute helmet for Earnhardt in the GM Goodwrench colors, changing “Goodwrench Service Plus” to “McLaren Service Plus” and replacing the helmet designer “Simpson” with “Daniel”. This weekend he will always wear the helmet when he is sitting in his Formula 1 car.
Jens Munser
When asked how important it is to have a reputation like Earnhardt in the eyes of your rivals, Ricciardo said, “It sure is real. It can play a role.
“What I love about sport, whether it’s racing or other sports, is sport psychology. The mental aspect of it. When you can put yourself in someone’s head, that’s the most powerful thing. I don’t know, we all try to be the best and you want to find every possible way to have one.
“When you can scare someone, it’s a pretty strong feeling. It may seem pretty wild, but that’s the nature of the sport and that’s what you try and do. That’s why I try to do justice to the honey badger. “
