\nThe well-liked racer was speaking at the Ray White\u2019s Connect conference<\/a> recently, going into his life after stepping away from F1 last year.
<\/p>\n \nAlongside the origins of his beard, Ricciardo also delved into his F1 career and explained how he acquired his iconic \u2018Honey Badger\u2019 nickname.
<\/p>\n \n\u201cHoney badgers are cuddly and cute, super good-looking,\u201d he said. \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 \n\u201cI have had a competitor in me since when I was a kid; I was always competitive in everything I did. But the killer instinct I needed to develop and work on extracting it out of myself. I\u2019m naturally more easy-going.
<\/p>\n \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.\u201d
<\/p>\n \nREAD MORE: F1 champion Max Verstappen reveals unfulfilled racing dream<\/a>
<\/p>\n What has Ricciardo been doing since F1 axe? \nRicciardo has not returned to racing since leaving F1 in 2024, and has instead focused on exploring who he is outside of motorsport.
<\/p>\n \nThe 36-year-old recently shared a picture of him hiking in Alaska with a grizzly bear in the background – although fans appeared more shocked by his full beard.
<\/p>\n \nRicciardo also mentioned spending more time with family and friends, and was pictured at Wimbledon alongside his parents Grace and Joe Ricciardo for his birthday this year.
<\/p>\n \nAs for a return to F1, this option has been completely ruled out, with Ricciardo very definitively stating he is \u2018done\u2019 with the sport.
<\/p>\n \nWhile a return to racing via an alternate series such as IndyCar or NASCAR is not out of the question, Ricciardo has announced no immediate plans to re-invigorate his racing career.
<\/p>\n \nREAD MORE: Axed F1 chief Guenther Steiner ‘set’ for multi-million dollar team purchase<\/a><\/p>\n Related
\n![\"Ricciardo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1cfba830e5881a136cfccb0e8699498f9965b6f5.jpg\"\/)
Ricciardo last competed at the 2024 Singapore GP<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFormula 1<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Ricciardo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Change your timezone:
Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that his ‘Honey Badger’ nickname was more important…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,2476,578,576,577,3631,44,11579,82],"class_list":["post-94763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gpfans","tag-news","tag-sheona-mountford","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}