The concept System 1 drivers sit behind a velvet rope and look down on the IndyCar Collection has been a speaking level for some time. American racing driver Conor Daly has mentioned that the sequence deserves “extra respect from over there.” So, when Daniel Ricciardo joined him on his Pace Avenue podcast forward of the one hundred and tenth operating of the Indianapolis 500, the query was shortly requested.
The eight-time grand prix winner was fast to dismiss the suggestion that F1 drivers look down at their oval-racing colleagues.
“Yeah, there’s undoubtedly respect for it,” he mentioned. “There was by no means a dialogue like, ‘we’re the perfect, F1’s this, we’re up right here’ – like no. As a child positive, for me F1 was the place I needed to be, and I used to be a fan of [Ayrton] Senna and all of that rising up, in order that was a giant a part of what I needed to do.
“But it surely was by no means like, we’re right here and everybody else is there. I feel whenever you get to a degree, you realize what’s concerned in racing.”
The hierarchy that fanbases assemble on-line actually is not the one working inside the paddock. Ricciardo continued: “There’s undoubtedly not a ‘we’re cooler than you guys’ – there’s none of that. And at the very least I by no means skilled that. I feel all of us simply in the end love racing, and also you guys do a really completely different self-discipline – particularly clearly the oval stuff in comparison with the circuit racing, what we do with a ton of downforce and all that. But it surely’s completely different.”
Again in 2022, the Australian was clear that oval racing scares him. “F*** that,” he mentioned. “Ovals scare me.”
Daniel Ricciardo & Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing
Picture by: Andy Hone
Nothing has modified since.
“Yeah, I feel you mentioned Max [Verstappen] mentioned it. I’ve mentioned it for a few years. Scares the s**t out of me.”
On the idea that F1 drivers solely care about F1 slightly than different types of motorsport, he added: “Some persons are stunned after they’re like, ‘Dude, you want that?’ Like if I mentioned I grew up watching NASCAR, they’d be like, ‘Wait, NASCAR? You are an F1 man.’”
The previous Crimson Bull driver will probably be attending this 12 months’s Indianapolis 500 as a fan after retiring from racing and changing into a Ford Racing ambassador.
“What you’ve got advised me about Indy and the five hundred – I’ve most likely by no means been extra excited since I used to be a child to go to a race and simply be a fan of a race, you realize? And I feel to expertise it, and the way in which you talk about it – you’ve got carried out the European factor, you’ve got travelled the world racing. I feel it will actually hit me onerous.”
He went to Daytona for the primary time on the finish of final 12 months and located that seeing the banking in individual was one thing else totally: “Man, some belongings you simply should see. You simply should bodily see it,” he mentioned earlier than including: “And I feel that is how I really feel with the five hundred.
“I’ve an concept of what it will likely be like. I have been round racing my entire life, however there’ll nonetheless be issues which might be simply gonna blow me away and I feel that is cool.”
We wish your opinion!
What would you prefer to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Workforce
