Making a first impression in F1
His first outing on the F1 stage same at Silverstone in the 2011 British Grand Prix, but it wasn't with the Toro Rosso team after all. Instead he was offered a chance to get some hands-on racing experience with the Hispania Racing Team (HRT), where he took over from Narain Karthikeyan as Vitantonio Liuzzi's team mate. He was with them for 11 races in total: while the sub-standard car ensured that he never finished higher than 18th place on a 24-car grid, he nonetheless proved himself a safe pair of hands while consistently finishing ahead of Liuzzi.
It was enough to satisfy his Red Bull bosses, and the following season he was promoted to the full-time race seat at the Toro Rosso junior team alongside Jean-Éric Vergne. In his first appearance in his home race at the 2012 season opener in Melbourne, Ricciardo delighted the Aussie fans by securing tenth on the grid, which led in turn to his first championship points by finishing in ninth.
Unfortunately Ricciardo arrived just as Red Bull's seemingly unshakeable grip on F1 proved to be altogether more fragile than expected
Ricciardo remained with Toro Rosso in 2013 and narrowly pipped Vergne in the final championship standings. It was perhaps down to that success that he was selected over the Frenchman for promotion to the senior Red Bull line-up, when his compatriot and mentor Mark Webber decided to retire from the sport at the end of the season.
Ricciardo was now team mate to four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. Unfortunately he'd arrived at Milton Keynes just as Red Bull's seemingly unshakeable grip on F1 proved to be altogether more fragile than expected, with Mercedes overpowering the entire grid to take their dominant first title in 2014 with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Despite the disappointment Ricciardo himself came out of it well, claiming eight podium positions and his first F1 career win in Montreal, which was quickly followed up by two more victories in Hungary and Spa. It meant he finished the season in third place behind the Silver Arrows duo - and a long way ahead of a frustrated Vettel
