RICCIARDO THE COMEDIAN

Daniel Ricciardo – The Comedian – Photo: LAT

Daniel Ricciardo was on fire Friday night in the Singapore paddock. Not only was Aussie physically hot after two long practice sessions in the heat and humidity, he was also constantly cracking jokes with the journalists and TV crews.

By DAN KNUTSON

Ricciardo and his Renault teammate Nico Hülkenberg hold separate meet the press sessions where they stand and talk to TV, print and web journalists after practice on Friday. AUTO ACTION was there on a hot, sweaty night in Singapore.

Here are some excerpts of Ricciardo’s hilarious conversations – at least the ones that can be printed in a family publication and website like AUTO ACTION. Before anybody takes umbrage, remember, Ricciardo was only joking, and he has a good rapport with the journalists who know that he is only kidding.

Ricciardo arrived wearing a team jumper. Why?

“I am actually bad,” he replied. “I am bad, unwell and slightly cooked around the edges.”

Are you not feeling well?

“No, I feel great. I’m just unwell. Slightly unstable!”

So you are not unwell?

“I like being unwell!”

Can Renault beat the midfield teams?

“As you said, it’s tight, but if we’re on the edge, I don’t know. It’s emotional. Are we kind of one foot off? I don’t know. Do you know what? You lost me at hello!”

Why are you wearing a jumper?

“I don’t have anything underneath so I quickly put this on. It’s actually really cold in the engineering office — it’s like air conditioning. You come out sweating, so I put this on to not get too cold, and actually I just kept this and came down now. Now it’s warm outside, yes. But the heat is fun. Try and cool down a little bit with the ice bath and then sweat. It’s whatever. It’s Singapore. I enjoy it. I sweat a lot, actually, but it’s healthy to sweat, so I’m very healthy. Very in shape.”

Does the ice bath cool you down too much?

“It certainly cools some of your body down if you know what I mean. My nipples. Yes, of course. They could cut through glass after an ice bath. Maybe it was too cool, maybe I was too relaxed out there. But just to bring your core temperature down, and the idea I believe is to keep you cooler during the session so your temperature doesn’t rise too much. But I don’t know. It is what it is. All I know is a certain part of my body doesn’t like it.”

Would you choose P9 or P11 in qualifying?

“I would take peanut butter and jelly.”

You shaved the beard you had yesterday. What happened?

“It was emotional. I was about to get into the shower last night, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought I was from a different part of the world. It was starting to grow pretty long. To be honest, I looked and I was like, it so going to get sweaty tomorrow. I envisioned ripping the balaclava off and just a whole lot of sweat hanging (from the beard). You lost me at hello. I don’t really know what I was talking about. It was not actually a plan to grow it, it just grew and then I was training all last week, and I was tired and lazy. And just, yeah, not going to do it. But then it got to a point yesterday, I did the press conference and I looked and was like maybe I’ll get it off. It is going to get quite itchy under the balaclava. So I just got rid of it, and kept like a little bit of love on top of the lip, just a little bit of a…I won’t say it…can I say it?”

No. You were slower than your teammate in both sessions.

“I think it was down to getting rid of the beard. Normally there is the expression fear the beard, but there was nothing to fear other than a little something tickly. So…it was tough, watching it wash down the drain last night, it was tough.”

Nothing to do with car balance, or the tyres

“Just give me a moment. It was emotional. Ahh…get it together. Balance. Balance not beard. Nico was faster, that is right, thanks for reminding me.”

Then, as the interview/comedy session was winding down, AUTO ACTION said to Ricciardo: “Daniel, try to have a sense of humor, you will get through life better instead of just being glum all the time. Don’t always be frowning.”

To which Ricciardo responded: “Exactly. Exactly. I am trying to. I’m trying to pick myself up. But life is pretty tough. It kind of sucks.”

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