“Carlos Sainz just shows him the middle finger!”- When Daniel Ricciardo hijacked Mercedes’ Instagram story ahead of Brazilian GP

Daniel Ricciardo became the unlikely ‘admin’ of the Mercedes Instagram account ahead of the Brazilian GP back in 2018.

Ricciardo is one of F1’s most likeable figures, and is hugely popular because of his funny nature. He engages in plenty of jokes with fellow F1 drivers, and sometimes even members of rival teams.

One such incident took place back at the 2018 Brazilian GP in Sao Paolo. Ahead of every race, the drivers go out on a parade around the circuit, waving to fans and thanking them for their presence. The Mercedes admin was recording an Instagram story for their account of the parade.

When @danielricciardo steals your phone…

Again. 😂😂😂#BrazilGP 🇧🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/210mFhaZ40

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 11, 2018

That was before Ricciardo, who was with Red Bull at the time took the phone away from him. Ricciardo immediately started laughing and pointed the camera towards Marcus Ericsson and Fernando Alonso.

“We have stolen the account of Mercedes I believe,” the Aussie said. “They wish they had beauty like this.” Ricciardo then pointed the camera towards the fans in the stands, before citing all of them as Daniel Ricciardo fans.

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Fernando Alonso offered an internship after Daniel Ricciardo hijack

Another driver who joined in on the fun was Alonso. The two time World Champion who was a then McLaren driver took control of the account too, and started talking about the ‘Alonso fans’ in the crowd.

“Here we are in Spain in front of all Spanish fans,” the former Ferrari driver joked. Subsequently, Alonso pointed the camera towards his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne saying, “Now we switch to Belgium!”

Riccardo then takes back the phone from Alonso, and points it towards Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas who just smiles at the Red Bull driver the whole time. The most interesting and hilarious interaction was that with Carlos Sainz who was with Renault back then.

The Spaniard just smiled at Ricciardo at first, before dropping the middle finger at him, which led to the others bursting out laughing. After the parade stories ended, the next video showed Mercedes offering Alonso an internship in their social media team!

“Hey guys sorry that was not planned,” Paul Ripke of Mercedes said. ” Hey Fernando, I guess you’re free next year, except for Indianapolis. I do need an intern. Are you able to use a camera?”

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