Daniel Ricciardo Says 2-Time World Champion Max Verstappen Doesn’t Know How to Drive Manual Car

Daniel Ricciardo is one of the most popular figures in F1 today. The Aussie lost out on his McLaren seat at the end of the 2022 season, and could not land a place anywhere else. As a result, he joined Red Bull as a third driver behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

Ricciardo may not be the main man at Red Bull in 2023, but his immense popularity means that the Milton-Keynes-based outfit can use him for marketing purposes. He was one of the highlights of their car launch event which took place last week in New York. After the event, he appeared for several interviews including a fun segment where was revealing, ‘which F1 driver was most likely to’.

He’s back! Welcome home, @DanielRicciardo 🇦🇺 #DR3ack pic.twitter.com/LlA4OX6Oab

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) November 23, 2022

Ricciardo revealed that his former teammate Lando Norris was most likely to forget his passport at home and was also most likely to become a DJ. Meanwhile, he feels Yuki Tsunoda would definitely be the one getting a speeding ticket, whereas Mercedes’ George Russell would love to be a social media influencer. However, it was the information he gave about Verstappen that stood out.

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2-time world champion Max Verstappen is most likely to stall his car, says Ricciardo

Verstappen is arguably the most in-form driver in Formula 1 today. He won two back-to-back world championships in 2021 and 2022 with the former coming after a grueling season-long battle with the legendary Lewis Hamilton. At the young age of 25, Verstappen has already surpassed the career of an F1 great like Fernando Alonso.

 

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However, being a great driver on the F1 track does not mean one won’t ever stall their car! This is according to Ricciardo who said that Verstappen is most likely to stall his car during the interview segment with ESPN.

Ricciardo also added that he doesn’t know Verstappen can drive a manual car or not. It seems likely that the Dutchman is more comfortable behind the wheel of an automatic car!

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Daniel Ricciardo at peace with not being in F1 in 2023

Ricciardo and all his fans were heartbroken when he lost his seat in 2022. He tried his best to find a place at a top team for this campaign, but when it became clear that there isn’t any place, he joined Red Bull as their third driver.

During the car launch event, the Perth-born driver revealed that while he is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the RB19 for tests and FP1 sessions, he is happy to not be racing full-time. Ricciardo plans on taking some time off while also not losing complete touch with the sport.

As for securing a place on the grid for the season after this, he insists that he is not thinking about it as of now.