DANIEL RICCIARDO’s three grand-prix winner’s trophies were left behind when ram-raiders broke in to Red Bull’s Formula One headquarters soon after the end of last season.
Nothing personal: it was an oversight as the gang plundered the 30ft-high glass case packed with souvenirs of the team’s four-year dominance of F1 until Mercedes burst their bubble. The trophies the robbers missed are the only ones that eluded Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2014.
There are many, however, who believe the greatest larceny suffered by the team last year involved Ricciardo, an indignity he could avenge a week today.
He was stripped of second place at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix on a technicality (he breached fuel consumption rules). Australia went to sleep believing one of their own had achieved another moment of sporting glory and awoke to a late-night reversal by the stewards.
It was one of the few times that Ricciardo’s ear-to-ear grin was wiped away but it provided an insight into the rise and rise of the smiling assassin.
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Lesser men would have been distracted by such a disappointment, particularly having endured a dreadful pre-season with a Renault engine that was unreliable and off the pace. The man from Western Australia knuckled down, took eight podiums and raced wheel-to-wheel with the best when the opportunity arose.
The loss of 18 points made no difference at the end of a season when Ricciardo finished third in the drivers’ championship, 79 points behind Rosberg. Hamilton was on a different planet as he took the title.
More significantly, in his first season at the front end, Ricciardo was 71 points ahead of his esteemed teammate Sebastian Vettel, the four-time world champion who has now moved to Ferrari.
That switch leaves Ricciardo as team leader at the age of 25. His new teammate is Danil Kyvat, a 20-year-old Russian who has had 19 impressive races with Toro Rosso.
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Kyvat’s promotion is less of a surprise than that of Ricciardo, who was selected when Mark Webber quit F1 at the end of 2013. Christian Horner, the Red Bull principal, says the list of applications for the vacancy included “virtually every driver on the grid”.
Red Bull’s decision to ignore big names was justified as Ricciardo took on everyone at some stage, including Vettel. The Australian is a fan of cage fighting and lists Ayrton Senna and the great American Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt as his heroes.
“I really liked that they were very respected and loved off the track but on it they were as bad as they could be,” he says. “In terms of bullying, I would never like to intentionally take someone out but the racecraft — the willingness to overtake and put the car on the limit — that’s the really good stuff.
“I did not surprise myself last year. But I was surprised that I was the only guy other than the Mercedes drivers who got three wins.
“When I was racing and overtaking and doing good things on the track I was not surprised. I knew I had it in me and I finally had the scenario to do it.
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“I fitted in the car from the start. I had the benefit of coming from a midfield car and even if this Red Bull car was not winning but in sixth, seventh place, it was already better than what I had experienced. That was like a positive for me, but from Seb’s point of view he had been winning everything and to drop to a fifth-, sixth- place car was a bit of a downer.”
When Vettel announced his departure, Ricciardo was not surprised. “He had won four titles with Red Bull and there is probably not much more he could achieve with the team.
“Before he got into his thirties [Vettel is 27] he thought it was a good time to make a move like that.”
Even with a father born in Sicily and a mother who has southern Italian roots, Ricciardo insists there is nothing in his DNA demanding a Ferrari drive.
The burning desire is for a world title, whether the car that delivers it comes from Maranello or Milton Keynes, where he lived for four years.
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“You don’t want to come across as arrogant but yes, I do believe I will be world champion, hopefully sooner rather than later. I’ve won races so winning a world championship is winning a few more.”
The reality is that winning a few more is the most that he can expect this season.
In the three pre-season tests, Red Bull have looked much better than last season but then they could barely manage a lap without fire or failure as Renault struggled to adjust to the new V6 engines.
“I really felt Mercedes exploited most of their potential last year where we and Ferrari did not,” he says with wonderful understatement.
Mercedes have been a cut above in the tests and even if they may not have the margins that they enjoyed last year, it looks like another fight for the title between Hamilton and Rosberg.
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Williams will be strong again with their Mercedes engine providing pace and reliability. Ferrari had a woeful season, going through two team principals as they came fourth, nearly 300 points behind Mercedes.
McLaren were even worse and their new era with Honda has been clouded by a strange accident involving Fernando Alonso, whose move from Ferrari allowed Vettel’s switch. Alonso is out of the Australian Grand Prix as doctors monitor his recovery from concussion and try to discover if he suffered a neurological problem just before he hit the wall at Barcelona. The accident left him in hospital for three days.
Vettel was driving behind and went to McLaren to tell them there was something odd about how Alonso hit the wall.
The McLaren car has been given the all-clear but more tests are required to decide when — or if — the double world champion will be able to race again.
When he does, Ricciardo will be waiting.