Four-word message sums up new-look Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Monaco GP

Daniel Ricciardo will be carrying four words inside his head this weekend as he unveiled a brand new look for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo is going to look a little different in Monaco this time around as he prepares to take another crack at one his favourite races on the calendar.

He secured his first ever F1 pole position in the principality back in 2016 with Red Bull, before a disastrous pit stop blunder cost him certain victory. But in 2018 the Aussie driver got his redemption by winning the most glamorous grand prix around.

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Ricciardo and McLaren teammate Lando Norris will be rocking different helmets this weekend, given the chance to design their own protective equipment.

Ricciardo went for an “old-school” look, explaining his design in a video posted to McLaren’s official YouTube channel.

“I’ve gone the retro McLaren,” he said. “Took some inspiration from back in the day, the old McLaren Cars logo with the Kiwi on it.

“It’s all hand painted, even the sponsor logos … they’re hand-painted.

“Gone for the old-school visor with the clips so it looks very retro.”

Ricciardo also asked for “these are my streets” to be painted on the back of his helmet — a phrase he hopes will ring true after Sunday’s race.

“A little message on the back. If you can’t read it, it says, ‘These are my streets’,” Ricciardo said.

“I run Monaco. I am the prince to be of this town, so there you go.”

Ricciardo has registered more F1 points at the Monaco Grand Prix than any other track, narrowly trumping Singapore and China, and both of his career F1 pole positions have come on the French Riviera.

F1 returns to Monaco for the first time since 2019 after last year’s event was cancelled because of COVID-19. Driving at the glamorous track in McLaren colours for the first time, Ricciardo is looking forward to adding another chapter in his relationship with Monte Carlo, but won’t go into detail about what changes he makes to adjust to the different threat posed by a very unique street circuit.

“I think there is a different style of driving involved (on street circuits),” Ricciardo told the In the Fast Lane podcast.

“I don’t want to give the secrets away, but a different technique is applied, and I know that I do drive a street circuit with a little bit of a different style.

“There is a different intensity I guess — in Singapore there are a few more corners with a little more forgiveness. Not every corner ends with a wall in Singapore, whereas in Monaco it’s pretty much every corner.

“Monaco is at 100 per cent intensity, Singapore is at 90 to 95 per cent. I think there’s definitely something more that Monaco has.”

Ricciardo is concerned Monaco won’t be the same ritzy event he’s used to because of coronavirus restrictions limiting daily crowd numbers to 7500 and keeping grandstands at 40 per cent capacity, suggesting the whole thing may feel “empty”.

“The whole aura of the boats and everyone and people on the track at the end of the day drinking and partying — not having that to that level will probably feel a little empty but for the in-car stuff I think we’ll probably be OK,” he said.

Ricciardo has pushed through some teething problems in 2021.

Meanwhile, Norris announced on Wednesday he’d signed a multi-year contract extension with McLaren.

The new deal means McLaren has a stable driving pairing until at least the end of 2023, with Ricciardo also remaining under contract until the end of the 2023 season.

In addition to the pair’s new helmets, McLaren will also run with a one-off livery for the race, using the classic Gulf Oil colour scheme.

Ricciardo is still struggling with some aspects of his new McLaren, in particular the brakes locking up. But he showed promising signs by finishing sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix, beating Norris for the first time this year.

However, the adjustment period has Ricciardo feeling “like a beginner” again as McLaren walks him through the steps needed to master the car.

On the weekend, a young woman from Europe detailed the night she spent with Ricciardo while holidaying in Spain two years ago, calling the Honey Badger the “sweetest man on earth”.

Originally published as Four-word message sums up new-look Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Monaco GP