Aussie F1 ace Daniel Ricciardo takes his Red Bull into the outback

03/27/2023

Aussie F1 ace Daniel Ricciardo takes his Red Bull into the outback in stunning video – even smashing the 750-horsepower beast down dirt roads

Daniel Ricciardo drove a Red Bull RB7 across the outback
The Aussie also tore down the Sea Cliff Bridge in New South Wales
His trip ended at Mount Panorama, the home of the Bathurst 1000

Daniel Ricciardo may not be on the grid at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, but that hasn’t stopped him from driving a Formula 1 car around his home country.

The Australian returned to Red Bull as their reserve driver this season after parting ways with McLaren at the end of last year and was back in the cockpit in very unusual conditions.

The eight-time Grand Prix winner put a Red Bull RB7 – the car with which Sebastian Vettel won the 2011 world championship – to the ultimate test, by driving it across the outback in Queensland and New South Wales before ending on the famous Mount Panorama circuit.

The road trip begins with Ricciardo driving in the desert, before heading to a cattle station in the outback, where off-road driver Daniel Sanders delivers a quick tutorial on navigating the famous Aussie bull dust.

The trip even takes in a fully-manned pitstop in the outback city of Broken Hill courtesy, before the Aussie tests the car across the Sea Cliff Bridge on the coast of New South Wales.

Daniel Ricciardo took the Red Bull RB7 for a spin across the Aussie outback

The Formula 1 car was fitted with special tyres to cope with the rocky terrain

The Australian drove the Formula 1 car in the Queensland outback along with off-road driver Toby Price for an obstacle course race

‘I’ve always wanted the opportunity to do this in Australia,’ Ricciardo said.

‘There’s nothing that compares to the Aussie conditions; we had a lot of fun ripping through the outback and tearing across the Sea Cliff Bridge

Ricciardo then moves north of the border to Queensland, where he meets off-road racer Toby Price for an obstacle course, as he drives the Red Bull around tractors and harvesters.

The drive across Australia ends at a more suitable place for a Formula 1 car as the 33-year-old meets three-time Supercar champion Shane Van Gisbergen at Mount Panorama.

Nevertheless, while there’s no dust to speak of the sight of Ricciardo tearing around the home of the Bathurst 1000 followed by Van Gisbergen in his Red Bull Ampol Camaro is almost as odd of him driving around the outback.

Red Bull have finished top of the podium in the first two races of the season, with Max Verstappen triumphing in Bahrain and Sergio Perez winning in Saudi Arabia ahead of his teammates.

While the season is still in its infancy, Red Bull already look miles ahead of the competition and are odds-on favourite to win a third world title in a row and Ricciardo is confident they can keep up the momentum in Melbourne.

‘The track is looking great, and I’m hoping our road trip research gives the team the edge they need,’ he said.

The Aussie also tore down the Sea Cliff Bridge in his RB7, with aerobatic pilot Matt Hall following him very closely

Ricciardo said it had always been a dream of his to drive across Australia in an F1 car

Ricciardo’s road trip even took in a fully-manned pit-stop at Silverton Hotel in Broken Hill

Ricciardo’s road trip across Australia proved the ultimate test for the RB7, with which Sebastian Vettel won the 2011 World Championship

The road trip ended at Mount Panorama, where Ricciardo raced three-time Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen

And Red Bull chief Christian Horner has played down any friction between Verstappen and Perez, after the latter raised concerns over his team’s communication in the final laps of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

‘We’ve got two very mature drivers who work well together, they’ve worked well together previously,’ he said.

‘We discussed the race before the race and said, ‘Look, you are free to race today, but the rules of engagement are team first, respect each other, respect the cars that you are driving’.

‘We [wanted] to bring home maximum points and we’ve done that.’

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