\u2018Selfish\u2019 Daniel Ricciardo shares new update on life after F1<\/a><\/p>\nAs one of the keynote speakers at Ray White\u2019s 2025 Connect conference, Ricciardo was tasked with opening up a bit more on his career, his legacy, and where he goes from here.<\/p>\n
Of course, the conversation couldn\u2019t come to a close without an explanation of the honey badger nickname\u2019s origins!<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when something takes what\u2019s theirs, they fight back, and I think that was sort of like my alter ego when I got behind the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honey badgers can be found scattered across Africa, Southwest Asia, and India, where they\u2019re notorious for their aggression and strength \u2014 as evidenced by the viral 2011 YouTube video proudly proclaiming that the \u201choney badger don\u2019t care; honey badger don\u2019t give a f*ck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having that alter ego allowed Ricciardo to access a \u201ckiller instinct\u201d that he may have otherwise found it difficult to uncover.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had a competitor in me since when I was a kid; I was always competitive in everything I did,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the killer instinct I needed to develop and work on extracting it out of myself. I\u2019m naturally more easy-going.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my first trainers at the time, Stu Smith, he really brought it out of me. I did have to work at it, but when I let it out it did feel kinda nice \u2013 it\u2019s nice to be a badass sometimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would use too much energy trying to be tough all the time because it\u2019s not natural for me. I would see other drivers who had that killer instinct from morning to night and I wished I could be like them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people would see me laughing and joking, and they would see that as weakness and underestimate me. But I would put the helmet on and think, \u2018Okay, now it\u2019s time to be tough like the others.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That honey badger mindset enabled him to consider his career in a different way. Ricciardo had to learn that raw speed could only serve him so long.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of drivers who could go on the track by themselves and be fast, but go on the track with 20 others and it\u2019s about race craft, and overtaking is a big part of that,\u201d Ricciardo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt becomes quite scary because there\u2019s some unpredictability and risk involved. You might be in third place and think, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve got a podium, do I need to risk crashing?\u2019, but it\u2019s the most fun, and I always thought it was better to crash than not try.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got to a point [where] to me it was just instinct. You accept that if it doesn\u2019t work you can be proud that you gave it a crack. I loved it, and I felt like the competitors would see me coming and knew I\u2019d have a go, so I was already one step ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the mindset that enabled Ricciardo to secure eight victories and 32 podiums during an era otherwise dominated by the Mercedes team, and that made him a fierce and respected competitor on the track.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how the honey badger alter ego will serve Ricciardo in the future.<\/p>\n
The Australian has admitted that his professional racing days are likely behind him after having been replaced at Racing Bulls by Liam Lawson in the final races of the F1 2024 season.<\/p>\n
Instead, he\u2019s spent these last months enjoying life and working on his clothing business, Enchant\u00e9.<\/p>\n
He has, however, recently spent some time in the hospital after sustaining a minor injury following a motorbike accident.<\/p>\n
Read next:\u00a0Daniel Ricciardo treated in hospital following motorbike accident in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his Formula 1 career firmly behind him, Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo has been slowly opening up on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,813,816,818,44,85,13852],"class_list":{"0":"post-88285","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-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88285","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=88285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}