Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo rocked up for the official Thursday press conference in Singapore sporting a new haircut that sees the underside of his head completely shaved and the op of his head full of shaggy curls, joking with the journo's that it had a good aerodynamic effect.
But, getting down to the serious nature of the conference, the Australian went on to state that the team has become stronger and stronger as the 2017 season has progressed and how he believes another win is on the cards for them before 2017 comes to a close.
Could it be here, at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday. We will know the answer to that in just a few short days' time…
Daniel: new go-faster haircut is it?
It's pretty aerodynamic. I won't take the top off. It's a bird's nest up there!
Front row of the grid the last two years here at Singapore, last three years on the podium; does the car you have this year allow you to dream of more than that?
I think so, I believe so. We've certainly got stronger and stronger and I think (that on) the high downforce circuits we've been pretty good but getting better. I think, also, looking at the last race, on the low downforce circuit we had really good pace on the Sunday which was a little surprise to us. With that, coming here, with a few updates as well, we should be there. It doesn't seem like these sort of circuits, this year, are a strength of Mercedes either so I think it could bring Ferrari and us really into that battle. I hope, at least, it's going to be a tight and exciting one.
And looking ahead to 2018 and the question of progress, what progress will satisfy you next year?
You know, we want to win, want to win and win more. We've fortunately got one this year. I believe we can win another and then obviously next year to start accumulating more and obviously fight for a title, that's what we really want. Yeah, we're certainly going in that direction, particularly since if I look back at Melbourne, that feels like another season ago. We're in a completely different position so progress has been good, I think we've got to keep that going to Abu Dhabi and then make another step across the winter to start strong for 2018.
What challenges and difficulties does a night race bring to you and do you prefer it over daytime racing?
It doesn't really change too much in terms of… you know the visibility here is really good. Some areas, maybe the light is a tiny bit more dim than others but it's fine. Actually, I think during the night here it's cool with all the city, the lights and all that, it makes quite a spectacle so… I think if we did the race in the day it would probably lose some of that so I'm happy driving here at night and I don't think you're compromised with visibility anywhere. It's pretty well lit.
Daniel, earlier this year, at the beginning of the year, you released a clothing line of yours that you designed for the Australian Grand Prix and I'm wondering how's it going? Can you give us an update on it and do you plan to expand on it? And you two, have you ever thought about the aspiration of the avenues of clothing, fashion design, to expand upon as athletes?
Thanks for mentioning it, I'll give you a free hoodie if you want one. We've kind of seen, over the last – whatever – couple of years, call it, there were a few requests coming in, I guess, from fans: will we ever bring out something for some fan merchandise, away from team stuff as well, more personal for a fan? We decided to do kind of a basic range for now and just keep it simple and see how it goes and so far it's going good. I've got some fans, which is nice. We'll see. Obviously if there's demand we'll expand it and create some more, different, unique, probably more fashionable items but it was just to kind of keep it pretty simple for now and see how we… a real entry level and see how it goes. It‘s cool, today I saw some guys wearing the T-shirts and the hats and it's fun so… What colour do you like? I'll hook you up, it's alright.
Liberty are starting to engage much more on a digital basis and their own digital platforms; coming to social media for drivers, how heavily are you involved in social media? Do you do your own tweets, are you actively involved and do you see it as a way to engage fans and bring new, younger fans into the sport in the future?
It's been good. I agree, I think it's a balance. The good thing about it is we control it, I control my pages and we can put out what we want and keep what we want so that's a good thing. We do control it. Some are doing more into their personal life than others. I think it's good to keep some mystery still as well, not show everyone everything. I did something in Spa, like a time lapse of the race day, in my driver room so I'm sure hardly anyone had even seen my driver room before so that gave them a little insight. It's not giving away anything but it's just something unique. I like what F1 did in Monza; I think they put the GoPro on Lewis's champagne bottle and sprayed that… so that was like a driver's point of view of what standing on the podium's like so little things like this. Even for me watching it, I was like that's really cool so I can imagine a fan watching that, it's pretty awesome. I think they're doing great things and I think it's only going to get better. For us, personally, as long as we stay in control of our own things then I don't think there's anything wrong with it or any danger of it getting out of hand so I think it's pretty good.






