Daniel Ricciardo always had a tendency to play pranks in the F1 paddock. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has now recalled one such incident when the Australian driver cheekily entered the Mercedes garage and attempted to receive information about the brakes and other things that would be of interest to his team.
The British team principal discussed the incident on the F1 Nation podcast and expressed his surprise that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff did not “throw him out” immediately. Horner said,
“Sometimes he would do crazy things like grab a camera from the F1 guys and just walk into the Mercedes garage. I was surprised Toto didn’t throw him out straight away when he was zooming in on the brakes and the things we were interested in. He was never shy about doing things.”
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Ricciardo pulled off this prank at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix. What was interesting about the moment was that many of the Mercedes engineers just laughed instead of fearing that they could leak some vital information to Red Bull.
During the same interview, Horner then also praised Ricciardo for having a good influence on Max Verstappen.
Horner believes Verstappen learned a lot from Ricciardo
Verstappen joined Ricciardo at Red Bull back at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, a race he won on his debut with the Milton Keynes-based outfit. Since the Dutchman was only 18 at the time, he needed a mentor to help him settle into one of the biggest teams in the sport.
Horner believes that Ricciardo helped Verstappen immensely in this aspect. During the same F1 Nation podcast, Horner said,
“I think Max learned a lot from him because when Max came to the team, he was really the youngster, the young dog. I think Daniel had a big influence on Max in teaching him not to take life too seriously and to enjoy the moment”.
Verstappen too has spoken highly of Ricciardo and was one of the only drivers to give a heartfelt message to the Australian when the 35-year-old was on the receiving end of immense criticism. Ricciardo revealed the same recently when he said that Verstappen “was one of the only guys who sent me a text and said, ‘Mate, keep your head up'”.
