P1 with Matt and Tommy - US Road Trip with Daniel Ricciardo! (Part 1)

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Back in Las Vegas, Matt was lucky enough to grab some time on the road with the legend that is Danny Ric!They get out into the desert with some country tunes in the background to talk about the realities of coming back from his hand injury, how F1's popularity has grown over the last few years and his plans for the offseason. Join us for part two tomorrow!You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast. Today, we have got something so unbelievably special for your ears. It's almost like a Christmas treat. We were very lucky. Well, I say we. I was very lucky. Tommy was also in the convoy. But I was in a car with Daniel Ricardo whilst out in America.

And we just chat. We had, I mean, some of it was reasonably wild, but some of us. it was quite normal and just a chat between two guys. So I hope you massively enjoy it. It was surreal to be able to have a mini road trip with Danny Rick. And yeah, I won't make you wait any further. Enjoy. All righty. And here we go. Here we go, baby. American road trip. Here we go. Woo-hoo! What's going on, buddy? What is going on? How are you? I'm good, mate, how are you? Yeah, very well, mate, very well.

I was very surprised to hear that you were joining us on this little trip. Pleasily surprised. You didn't even know we were coming. Man of the people. The look of shock on your face when I walked in that room. I'm a road dog. The open road is my home. I was going to say, you like this kind of thing, don't you?

I do. Yeah. It's a pretty good day of work. That's what I said to Tommy earlier as well. I was like, this is work right now, you know? driving the open roads to Vegas. And you've never been. Vegas, no, I've never been to Vegas.

You're gonna break your little Vegas virginity. Yeah, well we've been with poker stars and there's obviously been pros and they're all like, oh, you've never played, is it craps or something like that? You know when you throw the dice, they're like, oh, he's really good luck if you've never thrown dice before. So they're all like jumping on me and tell me like, you gotta throw for me, you got to throw for me. You're about to lose them all along. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're gonna hate us by the end of the trip.

but yeah man i think you'll uh i think you'll enjoy it yeah i'm really excited i've had it looks better at night so oh it's it feels it feels like uh i don't know it kind of feels like a movie set where it's just yeah doesn't feel real yeah how many times have you been to vegas i was actually on the way yesterday i was counting so i've driven from la five times okay so So five times by road and I reckon five times by air. So this is, it's probably my tenth time. Okay, so you've, I'm a season event. You've seen every square inch of Lake in Vegas, basically.

Oh, amazing. Yeah. A question I wanted to ask you, there's nothing to do in Vegas, they'd be off. All right, why the f*** were you a lap down the whole time in Brazil? Right. I would like to know myself. I'm glad that there's a confusion on your side as well, right?

So there was something about we should have changed the wing in the pit lane when we went to the garage that put us a lap down or something. I was just like forget that. I was like how are you, there hasn't been a race yet. Yeah. Like there's been two corners and then there was a safety car. And then they flew the red flag. So how can we start a lap down before the race has really even begun? So that was, and then it's like, oh no, you're not only going to start a lap down.

start from Pit Lane. So like, you take our dignity away from us. You take out pride. I was, you know what? I was, I was nearly so angry that I wasn't. I was like, I was so angry that I was just, just disappointed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, so I wasn't like throwing it around or like losing my mind. I was, it just kind of flattened us. And it was. Transcended into, yeah, past anger. Yeah. It was sad because the pace was good. Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah. Yeah. the speed was speed was there that look that that made me leave certainly the race frustrated but also I was like man we had pace so there was like I took definitely a little bit of positives away from a pretty lonely Sunday but yeah there was a hell lot of frustration because yeah I was

we were doing okay and we were yeah anyway I think we could have got as many points, if not more, as I did a week before in Mexico. So that's, that's, that was very frustrating. Must be refreshing though, in the same, in the same breath, the fact that the car's actually there, you know what I mean? Like, it's, yeah, it is. And that's, that's what's nice is that we're not, I don't feel like we're rocking up to the races now with a 10th place constructors car. Yeah. And it's also a car that, yeah, I feel quite good in.

So it's cool. Like getting the call up mid-season, I was, I wasn't really sure because I was like, yes, I do want to get back on the grid, but I don't really know this car at all. Is it too soon? This and that. And then once I jumped in, I was like, oh no, like this feels good. It feels at home. Yeah, that's cool.

And even like you, obviously, new team, like new engineer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So even that, you know, I didn't know Pierre really. at all who my engineer is. Yeah, Amlin. So it's like, man, I hope he gets me. I hope we're not just trying to play catch up and we're spending 23 hours a day on the track.

So there was a lot of things that maybe could have not worked, but it's actually been pretty good. That's nice to hear. That's nice to hear. Because I guess you have to hit it off on your engineer, right? Like you have to be able to translate and understand each other very well in order to build the car that you want.

Yeah, it's really important. I was just really, I was thinking this car's in our combo. It's not. No, it's not. We're just chilling. I don't apologize. What I wanted to say was, you know, Zandthor? We came out to Zandthor and obviously everything happened.

Because we had our magnificent chat, what, three days before that? We had our magnificent chat and everyone blamed us for the chat because it felt like everybody that we've interviewed or done something with, they've then had a bad weekend the next weekend. But thankfully, Carlos Sines broke. that broke that trend. But yeah, we actually had a lunch booked. So it was like us to you and Blake, we're going to have food in the Red Bull Hospitality and then of course everything happened.

Me and Tommy of course still rocked up and it was too empty. Free meals, a free meal, right? Yeah, no, we just intended you were there. It was, yeah, it was quite the experience. Yeah, it definitely, I would say it did its best to like take the wind out of my sales or our sales as a team. But yeah, I felt like we did well to not let it kind of break what we'd kind of got going. And like I'd spent, you know, the whole year up until that point, like, let's say getting myself back.

Yeah. Like physically, mentally, whatever, in a good place. Yeah, because we were talking about big neck Rick and all that good stuff at that shoot. And then what I've done? Yeah. And you know what? The thing that made me the most sad. So when we drove to the hospital, so we did all our stuff at the medical center, then they're like, you need to go to the hospital. I was like, yeah, I know this really hurts. On the way there, we drove past like a kind of like a park gym. So there was like a set of pull-up bars and stuff.

And I saw these guys doing pull-ups. And that actually cut me real deep. Because I just spent, especially like the summer break, you know, normally when you're boozing and having fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I spent summer break just training my butt off. And I was like loving training again and everything. Everything was like just good and I felt healthy and strong. And then I saw these guys doing pull-ups as my hands broken and all I could think of was like, I'm not going to be able to train for how many weeks.

All the work I've done, you know, a lot of that's probably going to become undone. So there was just a lot of like a lot of little. things as well which like cut me a little bit yeah how did you how did you bounce back like because everyone says how much you smile and how happy you are and stuff like that but everyone's human and how did you was it kind of family and support and friends and that kind of stuff and sort of yeah grounded you and catch you sort of say yeah definitely like that that stuff helps and like yeah you you don't do anything alone you know in terms of the um What am I trying to say?

Yeah, like there's always people that are going to help you along the way in some way, shape, a form. And yeah, through that, yeah, definitely, whether it was, you know, my girlfriend, whether it's Blake, whether it's, you know, my family on the phone with me, FaceTiming every day, you know, whether it's the doctors, the physios, like, everyone's kind of doing their bit to, like, get me through it. And I was really, the biggest hurdle for me was the surgery because I, I just don't like hospitals. I don't like needles. Even though I've got tattoos, needles are just different.

All right, they're different. That's a choice. So, like, you know, fortunately, the surgery was two days after. So, like, I didn't have to wait too long to kind of overcome that hurdle. And once I'd had the surgery, I was like, okay, I'm through, like, the thick of it in my head. Now it's time to just, you know, focus fully on recovery. Yeah.

Little did I know that physio was probably the most painful part of everything. Really? But I was like, once a surgery was done, I was like back on like the positive train. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're like, just get me back. Just get me back. Yeah, and that was it. And I'd realized like the place I'd got to, I didn't want to just fall back into something else.

And I was like, no, no, I've worked too hard to get back to this place this year. Yeah, yeah. I don't want this, you know, like relatively small injury to have a bigger effect than it needs to. So then I just kind of filled myself with more glass half full stuff. You know, first bone I've broken racing a car my whole life. So that's pretty good. It was only my hands. So like I could still sit on a bike in the gym.

I could still do like my neck training. So those things I could still do. It's not like I'm, you know, getting pushed around in a wheelchair and someone's, you know, like lifting me onto the toilet or things like this. So I was still quite self-sufficient. And so then, yeah, I just started picking apart all the like the positives. And I was, other than dealing with like the pain, which I'm a bit of a was at, everything else was pretty good. That's probably the first serious conversation we've ever had.

I know. That got deep. I know. I got real serious. It's all right. All right. switch it up you're like I'm not good at this stuff Danny everyone's so used to us just being weird yeah which we to be fair there there was quite a lot of chatter of the of the knee touch and how

that you you right that fuzzed my brain there was a lot of clips that went around after that which was which was good fun um this probably is going out after Vegas but I want to chat about Vegas just purely from like the track perspective and the the whole new surface and stuff like that I know a lot of people will be watching this after or listen to this afterwards, but do you envisage it being absolute carnage with the fact about the new track surface and stuff like that? I mean, I'm prepared for challenges, but I'm not going to put it like, let's say, negatively into my head. It probably will be slippery. It probably will be really tricky, but, you know, I think that seed's already planted.

If it is grippier, if it is better, then all right, awesome, like sweet. Yeah, you just tackle it as a normal weekend. But if it is probably what it will be, then, all right, it is, like, it's the same for everyone. So I think then it's just, I would probably like to think I would rely on my experience in terms of just like, just be a little bit patient. Obviously, FP1 will be, it's a new track. We're going to be like eyes wide open. going to be slippery like you know probability of you know going off is higher so just be patient just like logging laps is the most important thing and just kind of like

build up and let the track come to you so I think just probably not getting too excited will be the approach at least for at least for Friday yeah yeah there's going to be some cold breaks and some cold tires on this yeah but yeah you'll probably just see us weaving the whole time yeah DRS open weaving going purple It's going to be fascinated to watch. I'm excited. I can't... It still feels surreal that we're going to be racing on the strip.

It's something that I feel like F1 has blown up the last few years and so much is a little bit unexpected. You know, even having like our own Netflix series. Like that still seems a little surreal. But racing in Vegas on the strip, that is definitely the most wild thing in the last in the last bit. Do you watch the races back usually? Do you tune in and watch the race?

Depends. Because I was wondering whether if you didn't, you'd watch back Vegas because it's like, that's me. A spectacle, yeah. I did it. It wasn't a movie. So what I tend to do is, so when we finish the race,

we do our media, then we normally just jump straight into engineering. Yeah. To do like our post-race debrief. Um, so normally I'll watch the race whilst that's going on. So I'm kind of like, I'll do my bit, but then once my bit's done, I'll like watch the race. I'll listen to like, you know, say for example, obviously Yuki, what his comments are, but I'll like have one eye on the race. So when you say you watch the race, is that like just a POV of your race or is it like a highlight package or we'll have like the full race available for us. So I can watch like the TV feed. I can watch my onboard. Yeah. Whatever. So yeah, there's moments that I'm so I'll do most of my watching after the race with common tree

Well, only because that that like what we get doesn't have the commentary But um but yeah obviously if it's a race that I've like won then yeah hell yeah I'm watching it with a glass of the DR wine come on wearing the on shonte wearing your socks by the way come on yeah just a nice little such go on it's gonna give you a little more touch but I'll wait I'll wait till it gets darker yeah Yeah, yeah, nice. Then no one can see. Something that came to my mind, which I assume you don't use TikTok. I don't.

No. Okay, but you know the concept of it, right? A bit like Instagram Reels sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a trend going around at the moment, which I wanted to alert you about. Is it good, bad or ugly? I would say it's urging on the bad side. But anyway, so AI is very impressive, right?

And there's this trend going around. A lot of fan. Yeah, there's this trend going around where AI is essentially mimicking voices, right? And they're able to do it for the panic and for Formula One drivers. And there's this trend going around where whoever makes this pretends that you're leaving a voicemail. So it's like, hey babe, I just won the Monaco Grand Prix, hope you well, blah, blah, blah. And it's in your voice or in Lando's voice or whatever. No way.

Yeah, mate, it is absolutely mental. And I heard one of Lando's recently where it was even mimicking his laugh to the point where it was like so finely time that it was actually sounded like him. And I wondered what your voicemail would actually be like, do you leave voicemails? Are you, uh, no. You haven't picked up. That's where you know it's AI. Like it's not the real thing because do, surely no one's had voicemail the last 15 years. Come on.

Like I didn't know it's still a thing. Are you a voice? still got voicemail. I'm like, come on, stop living under a rock. But I'm a voice noter, just because I'm too lazy to type sometimes. And I also just kind of just hate looking at my phone. I just, I don't really like being on my phone much. So yeah, I will like a voice note and then it's their problem to deal with it. They can listen to it when they want and just feel like it buys me time. Is it a long voice note? Is it like I haven't spoken to you at a month? Here's eight minutes in chat. Yeah, that's, I'm normally.

the compensating because I'm terrible at responding you're just like strolling through okay yeah so no yeah no very well yeah what's the next question yeah exactly um but the AI thing yeah that's mental yeah absolutely crazy yeah that's good to know all right so if anyone gets uh that's all this authorized personnel only interesting government i mean you won't see any of that But it looked secret. Yeah, you guys just missed out. That was big.

That was big. I don't really... I guess we're just going straight until someone tells me otherwise. I assume so. We've got a radio, though. Oh yeah, whoops. I turned it off because they were annoying me before. They might have turned off about 10 miles ago.

Yeah, it's all right. But it's fine. You figure it out. Figure it out. Yeah. Like, you can't believe it's the Pnotta on the race of the season as well already. Wild. again similar to how we spoke before you're probably like I'm ready for a whole season now

yeah let's get stuck in yeah I know it's it's a bit like that's this season it's funny this season I I started the year like you know wanting to have the year off not wanting to race and then I've gone through then getting back in a seat and be like oh I want to do this and then obviously the hand so I was on the couch just like wanting to race And now we're here and the season's ending. All I want to do is race and everyone's like ready for a break. Let me race. You're the only fresh-based person in the paddock.

Yeah. Come on! Like the season I thought I would want to race the least. There's moments of me wanting to race, you know, more than ever. It's funny how this thing kind of, I guess, yeah, turns and changes and evolves and whatever. It's funny. What is your plan for the off season then? Once we like, let's say finish off some work stuff, so probably after the season I've got,

I'll say like two more weeks of work. Simulator and we go to Japan for like a Honda Thanks day. So like there's a few things like that. But then yeah, I'll get home probably around mid-December and normally like till the new year just I mean I say have some time off. I won't want to have as much off because, again, I've had most of the year off. But yeah, just a little bit of home time and spend some time on the farm, ride some dirt bikes, and then just get into preseason, train.

I'm building like a gym on the ranch, which I'm really excited about. So, yeah, I think I'm just going to enjoy home and just really get eyes set on 2024. and yeah can get after it how how big is the gym gonna be are we talking fully comprehensive I mean it's gonna it's I've never had like a home gym you know like I yeah in Monaco like in my apartment I'll set up like a room or do some stuff on the terrace like so I'll have I'll have a gym equipment in my in my house or my my apartment but I've never had like a real home gym so this is yeah I'm I'm going for it. That's awesome.

Yeah, I'm going for it. And then you can open up memberships, then people could come to the DR gym. Imagine that. I love... Bites are not on the car, they're not on auto. Is that us? No, they're on auto, that's not us. So, yeah, and I love, like in terms of the training stuff, I love training alone.

Like, I'm not really a public gym person. in person. I just kind of like putting my music on and just being in my own space. So kind of having a setup then like on the farm, which is obviously super secluded. It's going to be perfect. So yeah, looking forward to that. That's going to be mega. What are you doing? Where do you normally spend Christmas? Is it the UK or?

Yeah, UK. Yeah. You should see family. Do you ever chase the sun or not? I've never chased the sun. It feels like, Christmas always feels like it should be cold and kind of at home. I'm a bit of a home bug, I guess, in that sense. Yeah. Just not to have those same sort of family traditions and things like that. But yeah, it's very chill. Obviously, me and Tommy are our own bosses now for the first time this year so we can pick. Does that feel good? Yeah. We can pick and choose when we want to stop and but we still want to do content throughout. It's just we're just planning and then, yeah,

have a bit of time off and kind of celebrate the first year of P1, which, yeah, it's been a dream come true. So not as much, obviously, as sitting in the car with you. But that's what having P1 allows you to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what more I possibly want, really, that's, it's, no, it's mega. Okay, so that concludes part one of the Daniel Ricardo Christmas treat that we're giving you all with the road trip. I hope you've enjoyed. The second part will be out literally tomorrow. So you don't have to wait too long and we'll see you there. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast creator network.