Ricciardo about his youth: "I've always been fascinated by the speed"

Daniel Ricciardo, as the only driver, stayed in Australia after the postponement of the Australian Grand Prix. He went back to his hometown of Perth, where he keeps a close eye on the development of the coronavirus. As a young boy Ricciardo was racing at a young age in a kart. He told Sky Sports how he fell in love with motorsports.

"I've always been fascinated by speed and I loved going fast. That was the first thing I really liked. I already loved that feeling of speed back then," says Ricciardo. "I also liked the excitement and the danger that you run when you race, and all of that together is actually why I started to love motorsports."

The Renault driver himself had a hero when he grew up. "I was sure I looked up to other drivers and athletes. On the driver's side of course the obvious ones, like Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher". Ricciardo also says he wasn't just looking at F1 drivers. "Also Dale Earnhardt from NASCAR, he is called 'The Intimidator' and I think that's very cool".

Ricciardo also talks about how his life changed because of racing. "Normally I'm the nice guy in the group, but when a competition was made of it, I was a completely different person," concludes the Australian.