{"id":367937,"date":"2025-12-24T02:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367937\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T02:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T02:40:07","slug":"daniel-ricciardo-goes-airborne-at-fords-raptor-rally-in-return-to-racing-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367937\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo goes airborne at Ford\u2019s Raptor Rally in return to racing seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> has returned to the racing seat as he took on Ford’s Raptor Rally at Lake Havasu, Arizona.<\/p>\n

The Australian driver, who joined Ford as a brand ambassador in September 2025, retired from F1 after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. He joined a rally of Ford F-150 Raptors for high-speed desert runs and massive jumps.<\/p>\n

“All right, so we’re in Lake Havasu. I don’t know how much you can see behind me, but that is the lake,” Ricciardo said. “We looked it up. Deepest point is about 92 ft. I think it spans over about 40 miles or so. The whole drive I was just like, ‘Tonight, we’re going to go on a sunset drive, a little trail drive off-road, put the Raptors to use, put them to work, probably finish the night with a cold beverage.’<\/p>\n

“There’s going to be about a thousand Raptors tomorrow for the event. So, tonight’s a more quiet one. I think 50 of us. I’ve never done this before. I honestly don’t know what to expect, but that’s normally how I like to do things.<\/p>\n

“As soon as someone gives me a brief, I’m like, I like the surprise. So, I don’t know where this car is going to take me tonight, but I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful, and we’re in good hands.”<\/p>\n

After completing the sunset drive and enjoying some food and fireworks, he set off again for a final off-road drive on the first evening.<\/p>\n

The second day started with a jump. After successfully completing the first jump, he gave it another try to go in with more confidence. As he glided through the air, both he and his co-driver burst into laughter as they landed, pulling up alongside a marshal who said, “That was double what anyone has done all day.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, a little bit of ego overtook me, and I wasn’t happy with the first one,” Ricciardo said to the camera. “So, we went real big. That felt big. That was so fun. That was so fun. I think there’s a photo of us mid-air.”<\/p>\n

It was then time for the 36-year-old to get into the passenger seat for an off-road trail, including jumps, in another Raptor R, before getting into a Ford Raptor T1+ as both passenger and driver.<\/p>\n

“So we’ve had a day out in the dirt. I’m exhausted, hence why we’re finishing the day in the pool,” the former Red Bull F1 driver reflected. “It was pretty awesome, though. I jumped my truck. My Raptor R said, ‘Ahhh, really flying.’ And then I got driven by some pros – some off-roader pros with Lauren and Mitch.<\/p>\n

“I was pretty scared. But it was really fun. I hadn’t done anything like that before. We finished the day with everyone from the rally. And I think what the community’s built is really awesome. And I think what’s made Raptor is the people and days like this. And it’s really nice to be a part of that. It’s been a really good couple of days out here in Lake\u00a0Havasu.”<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo has returned to the racing seat as he took on Ford’s Raptor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,195711,79010,827,199533,817,813,816,85,1511],"class_list":{"0":"post-367937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-barcelona-catalunya-pre-season-testing","11":"tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","12":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","13":"tag-daniel-ricciardo-goes-airborne-at-fordu2019s-raptor-rally-in-return-to-racing-seat","14":"tag-f1","15":"tag-formula-1","16":"tag-formula1","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-trendingteam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367937","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=367937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}