Boy racer with the whole world in his hands

DANIEL Ricciardo is 24 years old. He lives in Monte Carlo. His desk is the cockpit of a Formula One car.

DANIEL Ricciardo is 24 years old. He lives in Monte Carlo. His desk is the cockpit of a Formula One car, his office is the race tracks of the world, his teeth are immaculate.

Every year, when Ricciardo returns to the northern suburbs of Perth where he grew up, he gives his neighbourhood mates a full day to ask him anything they want about life as an F1 driver. He tells them it is hard work. That between the races, there is testing, training, media work. "I try to talk about the unglamorous side of racing, just to make them think they are not missing out too much," he says.

And what do they really want to know? "All my single mates obviously want to know what the girls are like," he laughs. "They want to know if it's worth them flying around the world to try and pick up a few grid girls."

To this perennial question, Ricciardo has a ready answer. Come watch him race and he'll get them invited to a party. The rest is up to them. The same goes for Ricciardo ahead of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

He has earned a driver's seat with Red Bull Racing, the world championship team of the past four years. It is an invitation to the party. The rest, he knows, is up to him. As he readily admits, "I haven't got close to a win yet".

Ricciardo has the best and worst of jobs. The best for all the reasons he tells his wide-eyed mates around Christmas time in Perth; the worst because the bloke he most needs to beat to keep it is his teammate Sebastian Vettel, one of the greatest drivers motorsport has seen.

Having secured the Red Bull seat vacated by fellow Australian Mark Webber, Ricciardo is determined not to follow his countryman in letting professional rivalries sour his relationship with Vettel. It won't be "candlelight dinners, eating lobster on the beach", he jokes, but he respects the German and his extraordinary accomplishments - almost as much as he wants to beat him.

"If he is beating me, I won't be happy and if I am beating him I'm sure he won't be happy," he says. "That is nature of the sport. But I don't fear any animosity towards each other at any point."

In one sense, Ricciardo is following Vettel more than Webber. Two years ago, Ricciardo came to Albert Park as the newly contracted driver for Toro Rosso, a second team owned by Red Bull. Vettel served the same apprenticeship before he was given his first Red Bull Racing drive at the precocious age of 21.

Back then, Ricciardo had braces on his teeth and training wheels on his F1 career. All hometown attention at Albert Park was focused on Webber.

Ricciardo knows it will be very different tomorrow, when the F1s hit the circuit for their first practice laps. "Everyone is curious, along with me, just curious to see how I will go," he says. "A lot of people probably don't know what I'm capable of."

The same can be said of this year's Red Bull team, which struggled to complete laps in winter testing. A formula-wide shift from V8 engines to a turbocharged V6 means the cars will bring a new sound and more subtle handling to the sport, with drivers having to adjust to reduced downforce and tighter regulations around fuel use.

"There is a lot of talking that is taking place," Ricciardo says. "People ask me how is it going to go this weekend? I don't really know. I don't know much."

There is plenty of talking this day, as Ricciardo is ushered from one TV camera to the next, a buzz of public relations people in his ear and an everpresent can of Red Bull in his hand.

The venue is the roof-top terrace of an exclusive Melbourne apartment building, which overlooks the Albert Park circuit. On the expansive deck, there is a poker room, a cinema and a couple of hot tubs perched above the city skyline. The perfect place for Ricciardo to introduce his mates to some new friends.

For now though, he has more pressing matters. He has just stepped off a helicopter from an RAAF base outside the Gippsland town of Sale, where he duelled with an F/A-18 Hornet as part of a Red Bull publicity stunt. A day earlier, it was sponsor's engagements with Renault and Infinity, the team manufacturers.

Questions keep coming; some from F1 experts, most from tyre-kickers. Can he finish in the points? On the podium? Win a race? Asked about music, Ricciardo nominates one of his favourite bands as Parkway Drive, a heavy metal mob out of Byron Bay.

The title of the band's debut album? Killing with a Smile.