Overview

Daniel Ricciardo is an Australian Racing Driver. The 22 year old made his F1 debut for the backmarkers HRT at the 2011 British Grand Prix and competed in 11 races for the team. The 2012 season will see him move to the Red Bull junior team, Toro Rosso.

Daniel started his motor racing career at the age of 9, competing in a number of kart series across Australia. He then progressed to the Western Australia Formula Ford Championship in 2005 and finished 8^th in a 15 year old car. He then leased a 13 year old Formula Ford car and went to the Sandown Raceway to compete in the Australian national Formula Ford championship. His 13 year old car was uncompetitive and he could only finish 16^th and 17^th in the first 2 races of the weekend, before retiring in the last.

Ricciardo then won a scholarship to the Formula BMW Asia series. He competed in the championship with the Euroasia Motorsport team. He finished the season 3^rd in the 2006 championship with 2 wins and a pole position.  In August that year he raced for Motaworld Racing in 1 outing of the British Formula BMW series. He retired in race 1 but recovered to finish 8^th in race 2. He then entered the Formula BMW World Series and finished that race 5^th.

He then moved to the Formula Renault European and Italian championships. He entered 4 races of the European series but failed to score. The Italian championship saw him score 196 points and rank 6^th in the title. The following year he entered the Formula Renault Western Europe championship and won the title with 8 wins, 9 poles and 192 points. He backed that up with a 2^nd place finish in the Formula Renault EuroCup championship with 6 wins and 132 points. That same year he debuted in the Formula 3 Euroseries championship at the Nurburgring round. He finished 6^th in the first race and raced in 1 other round. He also competed in the Masters Formula 3 race.

In 2009 Ricciardo moved to the British Formula 3 series. He drove for Carlin Motorsport. He took the championship with 7 wins, 5 other podiums and 275 points. He became the first Australian driver to win the British Formula 3 title since David Brabham in 1989. The final rounds of the season saw him already crowned champion and he left the series on a high at Brands Hatch with a win in race 1, and 4^th in race 2. He then raced in the Macau GP with the Carlin team. He finished 6^th in the Qualifying race but retired on the first lap of the feature race after causing a large crash, taking out 7 other drivers.

The Formula Renault 3.5 series was his next target. He previously raced in 1 round at the Portuguese race in 2009, retiring from race 1 and finishing 15^th in the second. For the 2010 season he signed for the Tech 1 Racing team. He took 2^nd in the championship with 4 wins and 4 other podiums. He won races at renowned circuits like Monaco, Hungaroring and Hockenheim. He took 6 poles from 12 races and impressed many, including his team boss who said he was "I am very happy" with his performance. Ricciardo was involved in a massive incident at the first race of the Silverstone round, colliding with another driver and barrel rolling several times. He lost the title at the last round, by just 2 points, after securing his 8^th pole of the season. He had already raced in a F1 car by this point in his career, after driving in the 2009 Abu Dhabi young driver test for Red Bull. He set the fastest time.

In 2010 Ricciardo was made the Red Bull and Toro Rosso test and reserve driver, sharing the role with Brendan Hartley until he was dropped from the Red Bull driver development programme. He then raced in the young driver test again for Red Bull, setting the fastest lap of the whole test. This lap was 1.3 seconds faster than anyone else. He then was confirmed as the 2011 Toro Rosso test and reserve driver, competing in the first practice sessions for the team at each race. Meanwhile he signed with ISR Racing for the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 series. He juggled his first practice stints in F1 with the FR3.5 races. He however only raced in 12 rounds, missing 5. He missed 4 due to his Formula 1 commitments. He still took 5^th in the championship after taking 1 win, 5 second places and 144 points.

On the 30^th June 2011 Ricciardo signed a deal with the Hispania F1 team to race for them, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. He raced from the British GP onwards with a best result of 18^th in Hungary and India. He was confirmed as a 2012 driver for the Toro Rosso F1 Team.