Daniel Ricciardo is famous for his iconic ‘Shoey’ celebrations. The Australian has performed this celebration on several occasions when he has finished on the podium. Even though many fans recognize Ricciardo for this celebration, the 34-year-old once refused to perform it for a supporter in New York. The Honey Badger bizarrely cited the “daylight” as a reason for refusing to oblige to the fan’s request.
Ricciardo explained his reasoning for the same in an interview he gave to The Project at the start of the 2023 season. When told that the ‘Shoey’ has become an “epidemic” thanks to him, Ricciardo replied, “So, actually I did have a randomly in New York. A guy like pretty much ran across the street for a photo and then started to take his shoe off. And I was like (waves his hand)…It was still daylight, so it just was not the time for it“.
The former Red Bull driver then passionately explained the origin of the ‘Shoey’. Ricciardo made an interesting claim as he said that the origin of the ‘Shoey’ is German. The host of the interview did not agree at all with Ricciardo’s claims as she was quick to say, “Absolutely not“.
It was at this point that Ricciardo acknowledged that it is definitely an Australian tradition now. He just said that he was keen to look at the origin of the tradition after several of his fans told him that they love his “Shoey” celebration.
Daniel Ricciardo also explained how it felt not to have been racing
Since Daniel Ricciardo kickstarted the 2023 campaign on the sidelines because he failed to secure a race seat, the interviewer asked him what it felt like to not be racing. In reply, the former McLaren driver said that he felt “very happy” with his decision to not be on the grid in 2023.
The Australian then explained how taking a break from F1 helped him to have more personal time to spend with his family and friends. He stated how he had been enjoying his break by training his nephew to drive a bike, for example.
He then also added that he enjoyed spending more quality time with his friends instead of just meeting them briefly during race weekends. Although Ricciardo may have been ready to take the entire 2023 season off, he did not hesitate to grab the opportunity to return to racing when he got it.
Following Nyck de Vries’ disappointing performances, AlphaTauri decided to replace the Dutchman with Ricciardo in midseason. The 34-year-old was quick to hit the ground running as he delivered some impressive performances.
However, just after competing in two races post his return, the #3 driver suffered a fracture to his wrists due to a nasty collision during the second practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix. Consequently of this crash, he was sidelined for a couple of months before he returned to action for the United States GP in late October.
While Ricciardo did struggle in Austin, he arguably produced one of his best career performances in Mexico just a week later. He qualified an outstanding fourth for AlphaTauri and was just over 0.2 seconds slower than Max Verstappen’s pole time. It were these performances that convinced AlphaTauri to offer Ricciardo another deal for the 2024 season.
