SUMMARY
- UFC fighter Alexander Volkanovski joined Daniel Ricciardo's pit crew at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
- It was another disappointing outing for Danny Ric as he remains without points after three races.
Australian athletes Alexander Volkanovski and Daniel Ricciardo linked up over the weekend for the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix. UFC fighter Volk made a vlog of his trip to Melbourne where he was initially on the hunt for Melbourne’s best coffee due to the early morning schedule. He then joined Ricciardo and his team VCARB (formerly known as AlphaTauri) before the Grand Prix began.
Both the Aussie athletes are facing a rough patch. Alexander Volkanovski recently lost his UFC Featherweight Championship after getting knocked out by Ilia Topuria.
On the other hand, Ricciardo, who last won a Formula 1 race in 2021 – The Italian Grand Prix for McLaren, has not had the best start to the new 2024/25 season. He finished 13th on the opening weekend in Bahrain and 16th in Saudi Arabia. His home Grand Prix in Australia was a chance to make things right.
Alexander Volkanovski hilariously gave a pep talk to a cardboard cutout of Daniel Ricciardo
Over a week before Race Day, Alexander Volkanovski took to Instagram to offer some words of advice to his compatriot. Although it was just a cardboard cut out of Danny Ric in front of him, the Aussie driver did take notice of it.
Volkanovski told the life-size cut out of Ricciardo, “So what you do is, when you’re coming around the corner, you wanna brake as late as you can. Not too late, where you’re gonna slide out as you turn in. But just before… Get them extra seconds, you’re gonna curl around and then get some speed. You’ll make some time on that. There’s a couple of tips from The Volk.”
View this post on Instagram
Ricciardo commented on the Instagram post, “Haha first shout out goes to you when I put this advice to good use next week. Lezgobaybee”
However, Ricciardo was in for some bad news come the Australian GP. He suffered a setback in qualifying and could not recover on Race Day.
Daniel Ricciardo misses out on points again with a 12th-placed finish at the Australian Grand Pix
For the third consecutive race, Ricciardo missed out on points. In qualifying, his best Q1 timing was deleted due to exceeding track limits. The Aussie, who has never achieved a podium at his home GP, started from the 18th spot with Max Verstappen on pole.
Ricciardo’s race did not get any better as he finished 12th on the day. Verstappen, the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russel, did not finish the race while Logan Sergeant was withdrawn. Volkanovski met Ricciardo again after the race as the F1 driver explained to the UFC fighter about his post-race routine. The pair clicked a picture together.
CARLOS SAINZ WINS IN AUSTRALIA! 🤩
The Smooth Operator seals a sensational win Down Under just two weeks after emergency surgery 👏👏👏#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/97Rt3AtbCL
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 24, 2024
Carlos Sainz won the race with Charles Leclerc finishing second to make it a memorable Ferrari 1-2. Lando Norris came in third to complete the podium spots.
Ricciardo is in a tough spot with zero points in three races. He has been outperformed by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in all three races and qualifying sessions. Next up, the teams travel to Japan for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.