The Perth kid with a formula for success

IF Daniel Ricciardo's father had his way, Australia's newest Formula One driver would have stuck with tennis.

Daniel Ricciardo

IF Daniel Ricciardo's father had his way, Australia's newest Formula One driver would have stuck with tennis. Racing was an expensive passion, as Joe Ricciardo knew all too well from his hours lapping the local Barbagallo Raceway. And as Daniel reflected yesterday "a Perth boy making it to Formula One was one in a million".

Against those outrageous odds, Ricciardo will tomorrow slip into the cockpit of a Toro Rosso STR7 in preparation for his first Australian Grand Prix.

At 22, he isn't the youngest driver on the Albert Park grid -- that honour goes to the one bloke he wants to beat above all others this weekend, his French teammate Jean-Eric Vergne. But such has been the progress of his career, Ricciardo is as surprised as anyone to find himself here.

"It has happened all so quickly," he said yesterday. "I still remember go-karting like it was not that long ago. Now I am in Formula One. There is a lot of other stuff going on now but I still love racing. I still get that same feeling behind the wheel and that sense of freedom and adrenalin that I got when I first drove go-karts.

"As long as that stays for me I will keep progressing." Ricciardo chose a life behind the wheel for the same reason almost every racing driver does -- he simply loved going fast.

His earliest memories of the sport are being held by his mum at Barbagallo, a short drive up the Mitchell Freeway from the family home in Duncraig, in Perth's northern suburbs, while his dad whizzed past in whatever he was driving at the time.

"If he would ever take me around the racetrack I loved it," he said. "The faster he went the bigger smile I had on my face.

"As soon as I was old enough to try a go-kart I was pulling on his shirt and telling him to get me in one. Then I loved it as much as I thought I would.

"It is crazy. As much as I wanted to be a Formula One driver as a young kid and dreamed about it, I never really thought it would be possible, or if I had the will to do it.

"Being in Perth, it is a small place. Motorsport is very much in Europe, or at least Formula One. I didn't really like travelling as a kid. I wasn't that keen on seeing the world. I was happy in Australia."

All that changed when, as a teenager, Ricciardo was given the opportunity to drive formula cars in Asia and Europe. Now he lives in England and makes his living at the world's most famous racetracks. He has one Australian for regular company -- his fitness adviser Paul Haines, a former AFL conditioning coach who bears on his ankle the permanently inked evidence of his involvement in Geelong's 2007 premiership campaign.

But Ricciardo no longer sees the world or his sport as a small-town boy, which is just as well.

As he points out, Formula One is neither parochial nor patient by nature. At the age of 23, both Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton were world champions.

"It seems that we are getting younger and younger entering Formula One," Ricciardo said. "In Europe, you can be racing formula cars at 13. My first time was 16. So you start younger, you learn quicker and I think travelling around the world matures you much quicker. I was not the most mature kid at school but as soon as I got out of Australia and started travelling I quickly grew up." Ricciardo says he is not treating his first full Formula One season as a learning year. He declared yesterday his goal in Melbourne was to finish in the points, as Mark Webber famously did in his debut Formula One race for Minardi 10 years ago.

"Anything is possible," he said. "Even if qualifying doesn't go to plan, Sunday is a long race."

At 22 and driving for a middle-of-the-grid team, it is a confident declaration but hardly bravado. Having served an F1 apprenticeship as a Toro Rosso test driver and spent the second half of last season pinch-driving for the struggling Hispania Racing Team, Ricciardo is not a F1 newbie.

He knows his first task is to out-drive the talented Vergne, who will make his F1 debut on Sunday. Both young drivers are under no illusion they are vying for the same future job -- the seat to be vacated by Webber in the next two years at Red Bull, the sport's dominant organisation, which runs Toro Rosso as a development team.

"He is quick and I know he is capable," Ricciardo says of his French rival. "He is in Formula One for that reason. I definitely feel we are going to push each other as hard as any other teammates on the grid.

"That is important. For me, I have got to make sure I finish in front of him."

Ricciardo was at his parents' house in Perth, enjoying a few weeks leave from team duties, when he received the phone call from team boss Franz Tost to say he would drive one of the Toro Rosso cars this season.

The hardest thing for Ricciardo was not being able to tell any of his mates for the next few hours so the team could make a formal announcement. His parents didn't say much but cried plenty.

"It was perfect timing. That was my holiday for the year. It was nice to go out and enjoy it, rather than be in the gym or something when I got the news. It was pretty cool," he said.

As soon as the news was released, "the phones went crazy".

Heading into his first home GP, Ricciardo is starting to get a taste of what Webber has endured. Having made himself available for interview yesterday, Ricciardo spent as much time in the hot sun answering questions as he will in his car on Sunday.

Whatever happens this weekend and this season, Ricciardo is determined not to lose sight of why he loved racing. "There is so much other stuff going on but if you are strong enough to block out 80 per cent of it, you can still keep it pretty simple."