F1 News: Daniel Ricciardo Makes Australian Roadtrip Offer To Lando Norris

"Knowing that if we spent a lot of time together in a car and confined space maybe that would blossom even more.”

Daniel Ricciardo opened up about his relationship with former McLaren teammate Lando Norris as he offered to take him on a tour of Australia. He also reflected on how he got along with Lando during his McLaren days, despite their rivalry as teammates. 

Ricciardo, who is currently undergoing therapy for an injury to his left hand, saw the end to his two-year journey with McLaren when CEO Zak Brown replaced him with Oscar Piastri for the 2023 season, despite his contract having an additional year remaining before its expiry. McLaren also paid him a pay-off amount of £15 million.

In 2023, Ricciardo revealed how it was his dream to retire from the sport with Red Bull as he secured the reserve driver position with the Milton Keynes outfit. Eventually, he went on to secure a full-time racing seat with Red Bull's sister team AlphaTauri, replacing Nyck de Vries. 

However, his racing adventure lasted for two races after he broke his left Metacarpal in an incident during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend. However, good news soon arrived as an announcement of the extension of the Australian driver's contract alongside teammate Yuki Tsunoda until the end of next year.

Now that he has some time off the track, Ricciardo was asked in an interview to nominate a fellow F1 driver who he would like to take along on a road trip around Western Australia. 

Out of all the drivers he has maintained friendly relations with, he chose Norris to be his road trip travel partner. Revealing the reason for his choice, he told PerthNow: 

“It’s risky saying someone who hasn’t been a team-mate because I guess I don’t know them too well.

"So I’d probably have to go with someone that’s been a team-mate… even someone like Lando.

"We were team-mates for two years. I think the first year was very different to the second year. I think the second year we got to know each other a lot better.

"So I think on that, knowing that if we spent a lot of time together in a car and confined space maybe that would blossom even more.”

When they were colleagues, Ricciardo was the only driver among the two to have won a race in Monza in 2021, which was a 1-2 finish for the team.