Daniel Ricciardo laughing all the way as he lives the dream

DANIEL Ricciardo has been anointed as the fresh face of Formula One.

Ricciardo lives the dream

THE sentiments, as they appear on paper, scream the brashness, audacity and arrogance that all Formula One champions are supposed to be born with. Yet Daniel Ricciardo, the young upstart from Duncraig in northern Perth, sweetly masks his naked ambition and driven personality with toothy broad smiles, a casualness of attitude and a disarming charm.

“At end of the day I want to be the best in the world,’’ the 24-year old, dressed head to toe in Red Bull navy, drops into conversation, so convivially bystanders miss hearing it.

“For me to spy on (Lewis) Hamilton, (Fernando) Alonso and Seb (Vettel) and all these guys, I am sure I can learn some things from them, but I have to work out what is best for me,’’ he offers later.

On girls, Ricciardo confides: “I am not single,” before laughing and quickly adding: “Sorry, I have probably broken millions of girls’ hearts.’’ More laughter.

European hangers-on crowding the public access areas of Monaco’s yacht-filled waterfront adore Ricciardo’s laid-back persona. He is appreciated as much as the blunt-talking Mark Webber when he was the Red Bull man.

Australians in this part of the world are revered for both their exotic accents and their get-on-with-it approach. That Ricciardo has both, coupled with some ­astounding results in the first five F1 races this year after his promotion from the Toro Rosso development team, has him anointed as the fresh face of the sport.

Somehow Ricciardo’s allure has even helped refine the robotic image of his more accomplished teammate Vettel. Where Vettel MK2013 was the Teutonic champion, so single-minded he would thwart team orders and usurp Webber’s positioning on the track, the Vettel of 2014 is more humble and driven to occasionally crack a joke during a wretched year under the powered-down V6 engines.

So do they get on or not? Ricciardo says they do. They are similar in age and share a quirky sense of humour, and there is no reason to dispute his assertion. But Ricciardo tends to sway this way and that, almost in tune with the rocking of the sponsorship mooring.

“He has achieved a lot and he has got to a place where I would love to be,’’ says Ricciardo, fusing generosity, respect and ambition in the one sentence.

“At the track, obviously, we want to beat each other but at the same time we both respect the better guy on the day. At end of the day I want to be the best in the world and there is no better guy to measure myself to than Seb, and if I beat him I want to know I beat him at his best. So we push each other to be best.’’

Do they hang out? “Off the track, not really. Nothing personal, but he lives in Switzerland and I live in Monaco and I think you can’t ever be best friends. You have to keep a bit of distance.

“At the end of the day, you are fighting for a world title together and I can’t have in the back of my mind, ‘Oh, he bought me dinner last week’. You have to have that distance.’’

Ricciardo has always loved motor racing and his earliest memories as a two-year-old are of running around with his older sister Michelle, and of his father, Joe, racing as an amateur.

“I was about seven and I used to go to an indoor go-kart track in the Perth suburbs ... (but) I didn’t pass the height limit, I was always too short to drive. Then finally one day I was tall enough and I was like, ‘Yep, this is the day’.

“I remember that feeling of being in control and the whole sense of freedom, it was really cool and I liked it a lot.’’

With the Monaco Grand Prix — the tightest, most technical of all the 24 races this season — starting tomorrow night, Ricciardo says that sensation will yet again be replicated.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a bit different because now we have got the team coming on the radio all the time (with instructions in his earpiece) so you don’t feel alone, but definitely it still is a wicked sense of freedom.’’

The Monaco GP will also celebrate the career of Australia’s motor-racing icon Jack Brabham, who passed away this week.

“I remember meeting him as a kid and I had his picture on my bedroom wall for a few years,’’ Ricciardo says. “He made it possible for Australian kids to think they could achieve on the world stage.’’

Ricciardo has never seemed to lack confidence and he agrees that his progress through the ranks from karting to Formula 3 to Formula 1 has been rapid.

Since his elevation to the top formula, Ricciardo appears to have utterly relished the increased pressure and attention. He hasn’t finished outside the top four this season (his Melbourne third placing was taken from him and he failed to finish in Malaysia when his front wheel flew off).

But he said nothing has been overwhelming.

“The attention is a bit more, more media, and even within the team there are a few more people to liaise with,’’ he says.

“The team is made up of more people and people are more demanding of me for feedback after a test and I am getting a few more emails or calls from people in the team asking ‘How does that feel?’ or ‘How do we improve this?’

“I guess the workload is slightly more but other than that its been pretty smooth transition and nothing has been overwhelming.’’

Ricciardo is grounded enough — he says it’s due to a bunch of close mates from Perth and his family, including his mum, Grace, who pop by occasionally to see him compete in four or five races a season — to acknowledge he is living the dream. Well, his dream at least.

“I am sure some people think I am on millions of dollars and have my own yacht in Monaco already but I am definitely doing what I dreamt of doing, and I love doing it,’’ he says, again with a laugh.

So what can we all expect from him in Monaco, the same street course he blitzed three years ago in a Formula Renault.

“Hopefully with guns blazing and chrome wheels everywhere,’’ he says.

“I obviously finished on the ­podium (in Spain) last week and I want to stay there, and, not to sound too greedy, but the minimum I would hope for myself is a top three.

“Everyone wants to win here in Monaco and so do I. Everyone only remembers the winner here so I will do whatever I can to get it up there.

“This is a tight track, I like it, there is no room for error, you can get a bit more of yourself here and see what you are made of.”

And Ricciardo is never one given to self-doubt in that department. “Hopefully,” he says, “I am made of what I think I am.’’