‘Wow’… What Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher privately said to Daniel Ricciardo

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When Daniel Ricciardo joined the F1 grid in 2011, Michael Schumacher was still racing. The Mercedes version of Schumacher struggled to live up to his Ferrari legacy, but the Australian was honoured to share the track with him nonetheless.

Ricciardo made his F1 debut at the 2011 British GP, racing for backmarkers Hispania on loan from Red Bull. He would see out the second half of the season with the team but wasn’t able to finish higher than 18th.

The following year, though, he graduated to Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso. He was effectively going up against Jean-Eric Vergne for the opportunity to succeed an ageing Mark Webber alongside Sebastian Vettel.

Toro Rosso and Mercedes were far from direct rivals that year. Vergne and Ricciardo combined for just 26 points, while the Silver Arrows, who won a race in China through Nico Rosberg, bagged 142.

But there were still occasions when they met on track. One of those came at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Ricciardo crossed the line 10th to score the final championship point. Schumacher was 11th, a mere eight-tenths of a second behind.

Daniel Ricciardo recalls when Michael Schumacher praised his driving

Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show in November 2021, Ricciardo reminisced about the battle with Schumacher. He says the seven-time world champion approached him at the following race in South Korea in what was their first meaningful interaction.

Schumacher praised Ricciardo for his defensive driving at Suzuka, words which the Australian remembers fondly. It gave him a sense of belonging in what was effectively his rookie year.

He naturally looked up to the then-43-year-old, whose record of 91 race wins stood until Lewis Hamilton beat it at the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix. Ricciardo was a teenager when Schumacher won five straight titles with Ferrari.

He retired just a few races later following the season finale in Sao Paulo. He hasn’t been seen in public since his skiing accident in December 2013.

“Probably what was even cooler was at the following race, we have the drivers’ parade a couple of hours before the race,” Ricciardo said. “We’re all together going around and waving to the crowd.

“He came up to me – and I hadn’t really spoken to him yet – and he goes, ‘Good job in Japan, you defended really well’ and I was just like, ‘Wow, cool’. That was really the first moment where I was like, ‘OK, maybe I do belong’.”

Christian Horner slapped Helmut Marko on the leg after what he said to Daniel Ricciardo

Unlike Ricciardo, Schumacher had the chance to go out on his own terms. He initially retired at the end of 2006 before a three-year comeback with Mercedes.

Meanwhile, Red Bull have come under fire for axing Ricciardo with six races remaining. It wasn’t clear whether or not he was bidding farewell to F1 in Singapore.

Christian Horner offered Ricciardo a reserve driver role, but there’s no prospect of him taking it. He occupied that position for the first half of 2023 following his McLaren exit.

The team principal has been a consistent backer, while relations with Helmut Marko have been more difficult. Horner apparently slapped Marko on the leg back in 2018 after he directly told Ricciardo that he wanted teammate Max Verstappen to win the title in the coming years.