paris five things on daniel ricciardo who on thursday signed to drive for mclaren next seasonlike carlos sainz whose move to ferrari led to the mclaren vacancy ricciardo is a product of the red bull driver academy he drove for red bulls junior formula one team toro rosso in 2012 and 2013 having made his f1 debut at the british grand prix when loaned to the hrt team in 2011 he switched to the flagship red bull team in 2014 and has since won seven races and recorded 29 podium finishes he finished third in the drivers standings in 2014 and 2016he stunned the paddock by ditching red bull after five years for a fresh start and a lucrative twoyear deal at renault it was probably one of the most difficult decisions to take in my career so far he said at the time but i thought that it was time for me to take on a fresh and new challenge the move to once mighty mclaren emerging on the evidence of last season at least out of their slumber looks less of a risk dashingly brilliant at his best he will be hoping the british team can provide him with the power to become a serious title contender and fulfil his ambition of being the first australian world champion since alan jones in 1980ricciardo was born in perth but italy is close to heart his father giuseppe moved from ficarra to australia aged seven while his mum is firstgeneration italian ricciardo moved to italy as a teenager in pursuit of his motor racing dream and speaks the language he spoke about his love of italian tradition to australian public broadcaster sbs in 2017 the family values and always eating dinner together you know at the table we love our food i mean the whole world loves their food its not just italians but you know the big sunday lunches it was a big part of us getting together with other cousins uncles and auntieshe has added a new term to the formula one lexicon the shoey which is his own tradition of drinking champagne from his shoe to celebrate victories on the top of the podium after the 2017 canadian grand prix he drank champagne from his right shoe before generously offering his left after filling it up with bubbly to patrick stewart the iconic british actor and postrace comperelurking behind his beaming smile and aussieitalian charm lies a honey badger his nickname an image of which he has had adorned to the back of his helmet is well earned he explained its significance in a red bull interview its supposed to be the most fearless animal in the animal kingdom when you look at it he seems quite cute and cuddly but as soon as someone crosses his territory in a way he doesnt like he turns into a bit of a savage and hell go after anything tigers pythons he turns very quickly