On the eve of the Mexican Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo explored his dark side in a traditional Dia de los Muertos — Day of the Dead — celebration in Mexico City.
The normally super-smiley Formula One driver donned a black outfit and painted his face like a skeleton to mark Mexico’s national holiday to honor deceased loved ones, which officially starts Monday.
The moment of theater was an apt metaphor for Ricciardo’s 2016 season, which has been something of a resurrection for the popular Red Bull racer.
If the trend continues then the upbeat Australian predicts four-time world champions Red Bull can be title contenders again in 2017.
“This year has personally been my best season,” Ricciardo told CNN’s The Circuit in the build-up to Sunday’s race in Mexico.
“The confidence and belief was there from the start. I felt I was driving around problems a bit better than I used to and that’s something you can keep getting better at.
“But it felt unjust to me that I was driving at this level and not getting a victory for it.”
The elusive win finally came last month at a sizzling Malaysia Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton dramatically retired with smoke pouring from his Mercedes engine and Ricciardo inherited the race lead.
The Australian orchestrated exuberant celebrations on the podium as the main protagonists quaffed champagne from his race boot, now another unmistakeable Ricciardo trademark.
“A lot of things were running through my head on the podium,” the 27-year-old, who won his first three races in 2014, explains.
“It was a physical race so all of us were exhausted and that built on the emotion as well.
“I was thinking about the last win more than two years ago and how foreign that feeling felt as well as a lot of other things. There was massive satisfaction, for sure.”
Ricciardo, who made his F1 debut in 2011 with the now defunct Hispania team, has every right to feel content.
Along with victory in Malaysia, he has been on the podium seven more times so far this season and is the “best of the rest” behind the two title-chasing Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
“The season has been better than anticipated,” reflects Ricciardo.
“We thought we’d improve a little bit on last year, but not to where we are now, fighting for third in the drivers’ championship and second in the constructors’ championship. It’s looking pretty good.”
Ricciardo acknowledges that “sport isn’t always a fairytale” but his 2016 season could easily have been as much of a horror story as his Mexico face paint.
In May, teenage talent Max Verstappen became Ricciardo’s new Red Bull teammate when he was surprisingly promoted from sister team Toro Rosso at the expense of Daniil Kvyat.
The 18-year-old Verstappen stormed into F1 history as its youngest winner, benefiting from a strategy error on the other side of the Red Bull garage to sensationally win the Spanish Grand Prix.
More misfortune followed for Ricciardo at the next race in Monaco when a slow pit stop denied him another certain win.
“Spain was weird because Max just came to the team and that was creating a lot of news, period,” Ricciardo recalls. “Then he goes and wins and it became a crazy weekend.
“When I look back on Monaco it’s hard, but easier to deal with when it’s out of your control. I did everything I could. It was someone else’s error.
“I got the first pole of my career in Monaco and if it wasn’t for what happened with the pit stop it would have easily been the best weekend of my career.
“I love Monaco. I had success there in the junior formulas and it’s always a track where you can sort of puff your chest out a little bit, you feel like the driver does a little bit more there.
“Next season, absolutely. That one’s not going to get away from me again.”
Ricciardo is a glass-half-full kind of guy but there is genuine cause to be optimistic about what lies in store in 2017.
F1 is embracing more technical rule changes that could shake up the pecking order.
Mercedes has dominated F1 since the last slew of regulation changes, which focused on engine technology, were introduced in 2014. The UK-based team has won three straights constructors’ titles and Rosberg and Hamilton are now dueling alone for the 2016 drivers’ title.
Next season’s rule changes will see wider and faster cars and meatier tires.
There is, importantly, also more focus on aerodynamic performance, which means Red Bull can call upon the talents of a man in a class of his own in that field, its chief technical officer Adrian Newey.
F1 experts are predicting Red Bull could come out of the blocks quickly and mount a real challenge to Mercedes.
“I’m hopeful we can be closer, when I say closer, I mean close enough to fight for the title,” agrees Ricciardo.
“Myself and Max are capable of doing it and I know the team believes in us.”
When asked by CNN whether Red Bull now has the strongest driver pairing in F1, Ricciardo is diplomatic but not demurring.
“Mercedes have the more experienced line-up,” he says. “But I’ve been in this sport a few years and Max for his inexperience, he’s quite a mature driver, so I honestly believe we’ve got the strongest line-up on the grid.
“I know if you ask Red Bull they’ll say that, and I honestly believe they think that as well.
“Let’s see what happens but 2017 will hopefully it will be a year we can fight for [the title].
“I believe in the team. Everything’s got to be put together but if we have a solid winter, we can come out in Melbourne [home of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix] and start to put the pressure on.”
When Ricciardo leaves Mexico City on Monday it won’t be the Day of the Dead that he hopes to be celebrating so much as the dawn of a new era for Red Bull.
