McLaren F1 Confirm Big News for Daniel Ricciardo Ahead of Austin GP

Daniel Ricciardo has made quite a name for himself, thanks to his entertaining antics in the paddock. He is also known as the person who stirs up some trouble for his bosses by making bets with them. Last year, he made a bet with his former team boss, Cyril Abiteboul. The bet said that if Ricciardo put Renault on the podium, Cyril would get a tattoo of Ricciardo’s choice. Sadly, Cyril has not yet followed up on his promise.

But now, Ricciardo set up another bet with his new boss, Zak Brown – and he has won it too!

READ MORE: Daniel Ricciardo Reveals the Most Embarrassing Moment in His F1 Career

Daniel Ricciardo and his wild bets

Zak has a fear of needles, so tattoos were out of the question. But one thing that Zak has is an enviable car collection. So, the new bet that Ricciardo chalked up was that if he gets a podium for McLaren, he gets to drive in a car that was raced by Ricciardo’s racing hero – Dale Earnheardt.

During the season opener at Bahrain, Zak Brown gifted Ricciardo a scaled-down model of Dale Earnhardt’s No 3 Chevrolet. Zak Brown happens to have the Dale Earnheart car in his insane collection. And he promised that if Ricciardo manages to secure a podium, he will give him an opportunity to drive the real car.

The McLaren team posted on social media a video capturing the moment when Zak gifted the model of the No 3 Chevrolet to Ricciardo, and Ricciardo was seen smiling ear to ear as he asked Zak if he could seriously keep the model.

Zak Brown is a man of his words

Fast forward to now, Ricciardo has managed to gift McLaren not only a podium but their first-ever victory in 9 years when he performed much more than what was expected and led home a McLaren 1-2 with Lando Norris finishing P2.

And Zak Brown has proved that he is a man of his word, as Mclaren posted the video of the bet again and tweeted “Remember this deal? It’s happening at the USGP”

Zak Brown retweeted the video with the caption “A deal is a deal.”

So, it’s fixed now that Ricciardo will get to drive his idol’s No 3 Chevrolet, at the United States Grand Prix. But how will he fare in the Texas circuit? That’s something all Ricciardo fans will watch out for, as the season is coming to an end.