Daniel Ricciardo: The Honey Badger's Formula One Story

Daniel Ricciardo, an Australian driver, raced in Formula One between 2011 and 2024. Known as the Honey Badger, he won eight Grands Prix and took three pole positions over 14 seasons. Three of his wins came in his first full Red Bull season.

Ricciardo's story runs from karting in Perth to the Red Bull junior programme, a first season with HRT, a long spell at Toro Rosso and Red Bull, and then a series of teams that ended with his retirement in September 2025. The sections below follow that path and the results that shaped it.

How did Ricciardo rise through the junior ranks?

Ricciardo arrived in the world on 1 July 1989 in Perth, to Italian-Australian parents, and he began competitive karting at the age of nine. He was Australian karting champion in 2005, and he moved into Formula Ford that year while still a teenager.

His single-seater progress was steady rather than rapid at first. A fifteen-year-old Van Diemen in Western Australian Formula Ford left him eighth in the standings, and a later outing in the national series with an aging car produced disappointing results. Things improved after he finished sixth in the 2007 Formula Renault 2.0 Italia, which brought him to the attention of the Red Bull Junior Team.

In 2008 he won the Formula Renault 2.0 WEC title with SG Formula, then took the 2009 British F3 crown with Carlin. Those titles made him one of the most promising young drivers in Europe, and they paved the way for a step up to Formula Renault 3.5.

His first season in that series, with Tech 1, was close to a title. He finished second to Mikhail Aleshin, two points behind, after taking eight poles in the season and winning two races at the Hungaroring and Hockenheimring.

Eight Grand Prix wins, a Red Bull breakthrough in 2014 and a McLaren victory at Monza, all from a karting start in Perth.

How did the HRT and Toro Rosso years go?

His first start came at the 2011 British Grand Prix in an HRT, and he qualified and finished last in that race. He drove in eleven races for the team that season, and his best qualifying position was 21st in Abu Dhabi, which left him 27th in the championship.

Red Bull then gave him a full-time seat at its sister team Toro Rosso for 2012 and 2013, alongside Jean-Eric Vergne. His first points came with ninth place at the Australian Grand Prix in 2012, and the team's car gave him more consistent results as the year went on.

The 2013 season brought his best result to that point, seventh at the Chinese Grand Prix, along with a fifth-place qualifying effort at Silverstone. He finished the year fourteenth in the standings with 20 points, and he qualified ahead of Vergne more often than not.

Why did Ricciardo move to Red Bull in 2014?

Ricciardo moved up to Red Bull for 2014, replacing Mark Webber and partnering the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. He had been chosen as the most promising of the team's junior drivers, and the decision was one of the defining choices of his career.

His first season with the team was a breakthrough. He won the Canadian Grand Prix, which was his first Formula One win, and then took victories at the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix. He finished the year third in the drivers' championship with 238 points, while Vettel scored 167, and he was the sole driver outside Mercedes to take a victory that season.

Ricciardo's 2015 season was harder. Red Bull failed to win a race that year, and its Renault engines were a source of trouble. His best results came at Hungary, where he took third, and at Singapore, where he finished second and set the fastest lap. He finished the season eighth with 92 points.

In 2016 he took his maiden pole position at Monaco and won the Malaysian Grand Prix. He finished third again in the championship with 256 points, and he celebrated many of his podiums with his famous shoey, which became a trademark moment after the German Grand Prix.

The 2016 season had its ups and downs. In China he qualified second and led early on, but a tyre failure dropped him back, and he later called his recovery to fourth the best race of his career. Monaco brought his maiden pole, yet a very long pit stop cost him the lead and he finished second.

Second places at the German and Belgian Grands Prix followed, and he was second again at Singapore, less than half a second behind the winner. Those results lifted him to third in the standings, where he stayed for the rest of the season.

What were the Red Bull years like after 2016?

In 2017 Ricciardo won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was his fifth Formula One victory. He finished fifth in the championship with 200 points, with one victory and eight further podiums, while Verstappen qualified ahead of him at thirteen of the twenty races.

The 2018 season was a mix of brilliance and frustration. He claimed the Chinese race with a margin of almost nine seconds, and he took the Monaco Grand Prix from pole. Mechanical problems hit him repeatedly, and he suffered eight retirements across the season.

He finished the 2018 championship sixth with 170 points, and he announced in August that he would leave Red Bull for Renault in 2019. He described the decision as one made on good terms, and he said he felt he had given the team his all.

What happened at Renault and McLaren?

Ricciardo spent 2019 and 2020 at Renault, where he finished ninth in 2019 with 54 points. In 2020 he was fifth in the championship with 119 points, and he took third at the Eifel Grand Prix after a strong run through the field.

His first Renault season had a strong spell in the middle. He reached Q3 for the first time that year at the Chinese Grand Prix, then scored his first points for the team there with seventh place. Ninth at Monaco and sixth at Canada, where he had started fourth, ahead of both Red Bulls, added to a useful points tally.

He moved to McLaren for 2021 to partner Lando Norris. The season brought him his best result for the team, a win at the Italian Grand Prix, which was his eighth Grand Prix victory and McLaren's first win since 2012. He finished the season eighth with 115 points.

His first McLaren season began with sixth on the grid in Bahrain, and a collision with Pierre Gasly left his car damaged, but he still picked up points. He added points at the next three races, and he recovered from sixteenth to ninth at the Portuguese Grand Prix, although McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl felt that he had struggled to adapt to the MCL35M.

Silverstone brought his best result with the team at that stage, fifth in the race behind fourth-placed Norris. He also qualified fifth in Italy, only 0.006 seconds behind Norris, and in the Dutch Grand Prix the team asked him to give up a position to Norris on fresher tyres, which denied him a points finish.

His 2022 season at McLaren was far harder. He finished eleventh with 37 points, and the team confirmed in August that his contract would end at the close of the year. He stayed involved with Formula One afterwards, and he returned to a supporting role with Red Bull.

The second half of 2022 gave him a few more points. He started 13th in Azerbaijan and finished eighth, and at Singapore he came through from 16th to fifth, which was his best result of the season. At Monza he had been in the top three early on before an oil leak ended his race, and that retirement was one of several difficult weekends that year.

How did his final seasons unfold?

Ricciardo became Red Bull's reserve driver for 2023 and returned to a race seat with AlphaTauri, taking over from Nyck de Vries from the Hungarian Grand Prix onward. A broken hand suffered at the Dutch Grand Prix kept him out for four races, and he later finished seventh at the Mexico City Grand Prix, the best result of his year with the team.

The 2024 season, with the team renamed RB, began with Ricciardo retained alongside Yuki Tsunoda. He had a fourth-place finish in the Miami sprint and a points finish at the Canadian Grand Prix, but Liam Lawson took the seat once the Singapore race was run. He finished the year seventeenth with twelve points.

Ricciardo said he was proud of what he had achieved, adding that he would not change a thing about his career if he could start again.

What is Ricciardo's legacy?

Ricciardo's reputation rests on his smile, his overtaking and his aggressive driving style. He is known for late braking into corners and for carrying speed through the middle of a turn, and his nickname comes from the racing character he showed on track.

His profile also grew with the Netflix series Drive to Survive, where he was widely seen as a central figure. He was honoured in Australia as well, receiving membership of the Order of Australia, awarded in 2022. In 2015 he won the Laureus Breakthrough Performance award, and in 2024 he received the Confartigianato Motori Legend of F1 Award.

Away from the track, he founded the Daniel Ricciardo Series in 2019 to give young drivers affordable access to owner-driver karting. He also set the fastest F1 lap of the Top Gear test track in 2015, with a time of 1:42.2 that beat Lewis Hamilton's previous mark.

Career summary