New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nVerstappen had used No. 3 during his brief junior career, but Ricciardo had already taken the number by the time the Dutchman made his debut in 2015, prompting him to pick the doubled-up No. 33 instead.<\/p>\n
He then switched to No. 1 when during his four title-defending seasons.<\/p>\n
But with Lando Norris taking No. 1 next season following his championship victory and with Ricciardo having retired from competition, Verstappen is taking the opportunity to switch to his originally preferred number.<\/p>\n
The F1 rules declare a number is available if it hasn\u2019t been used for two seasons. Because Ricciardo last raced in 2024, the Australian has had to give his permission for his old digit to be repurposed by his former teammate.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo claimed all eight of his victories bearing No. 3, a number he chose in homage to one of his racing idols, NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt.<\/p>\n
Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, had a fearsome on-track reputation that earnt him the nickname \u2018the intimidator\u2019 during his racing career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a hero for sure, and it was really in 2014 when I took on the No. 3, and I also had it in the back of my mind to take on \u2018the intimidator\u2019 and my version of that was \u2018the honey badger\u2019,\u201d Ricciardo told Racer during his F1 career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt it was my year to make a bit of a statement, to be the guy that was, let\u2019s say, not afraid to put on a big move, to race hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel I\u2019d quite had that yet, and that first year with Red Bull was the first chance to make that statement and to earn that reputation. For sure part of that was on the back of Earnhardt and how he inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n
PIT TALK PODCAST: After a rare three-way title decider in Abu Dhabi, Michael and Matt run the rule over the 2025 grid to pick the season\u2019s 10 best performers \u2014 and the drivers deserving of dishonourable mentions.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo got the chance to race Earnhardt\u2019s 1984 Chevrolet racer at the 2021 United States Grand Prix courtesy of McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who owned the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sick, it was so much fun,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s so different as well. I got my kicks out of it because it\u2019s so raw and foreign. The noise, smashing gears, the driving position \u2026 everything\u2019s quite unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s Dale\u2019s car \u2014 one of my all-time heroes. So that was surreal. Good fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricciardo has made by far the most starts with No. 3, with 219 to his name under that number.<\/p>\n
Prior to 2014, the FIA allocated all drivers their numbers automatically, with the world champion and his teammate getting Nos. 1 and 2. Numbers would then be handed out in descending order based on constructors championship position.<\/p>\n
Michael Schumacher was the driver to use No. 3 most frequently after Ricciardo, having started 61 races with it.<\/p>\n
The number isn\u2019t particularly auspicious in Formula 1. Drivers bearing No. 3 have recorded 684 finishes, but only 63 of them \u2014 9.2 per cent \u2014 have been victories.<\/p>\n
It makes it the sixth most successful number by victories in Formula 1 history, following Nos. 1, 5, 44, 2 and 6.<\/p>\n
The most frequent finishing position for a driver bearing No. 3 is fifth place.<\/p>\n
However, No. 3 has won three championships: with Graham Hill in 1962, Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 and Michael Schumacher in 2000.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s choice of No. 3 will be one of two new numbers on the grid next season, with Arvid Lindblad choosing No. 41 for his rookie campaign at Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s new teammate, Isack Hadjar, races bearing No. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen will enter the 2026 championship bearing the No. 3 after Daniel Ricciardo agreed to relinquish his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[944,2095,1724,64,63,100303,195538,195539,195533,195531,195540,193101,817,195537,813,816,653,2105,13207,155955,2819,1737,935,2082,5120,825,844,2041,2067,195536,2119,195534,43359,59976,2812,85,195532,182905,176464,2614,195535,12000,9657],"class_list":["post-357195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-championship-victory","tag-constructors-championship-position","tag-dale-earnhardt","tag-driver-bearing","tag-driver-numbers","tag-drivers-bearing","tag-drivers-deserving","tag-f1","tag-fearsome-on-track-reputation","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fox-sports-news","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-jacques-villeneuve","tag-junior-career","tag-kuala-lumpur","tag-lando-norris","tag-malaysia","tag-mark-thompson","tag-matt","tag-max-verstappen","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-personal-race-number","tag-pit-talk","tag-place-finisher","tag-race-winner","tag-rookie-campaign","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-sports","tag-teammate-getting","tag-three-way-title-decider","tag-title-defeat","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victories-bearing","tag-western-asia","tag-zak-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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