Ride along with Ricciardo in the MCL35M!

©McLaren

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Daniel Ricciardo got his first taste of driving a Mercedes-powered McLaren on Tuesday as the team conducted a shakedown of this year's MCL35M at Silverstone, a day after the official car launch.

The team was good enough to ensure that this small piece of history was recorded for posterity, and they've shared it with fans who can get a taste of what it looks and sounds like to be at the cockpit of a 2021 Formula 1 car:

“Slowly shaken out some cobwebs, first few laps done,” he said in a video distributed on the team's official app, adding that the damp conditions had meant he needed to hold back. "It’s probably the worst conditions because it’s greasy. I’m a little cautious on day one, but its all good.”

But it had proved a tight fit for the tall Australian who only just managed to squeeze into the car. “I do have wide hips. I’m pretty thick-boned, I guess, but I got in!" he told FoxSport. “It was the first mock-up of a seat, and with the dimensions they had, and assumed what would be okay for me, wasn’t quite okay.

"The way they design the cars and the chassis now, everything’s trying to be as tight and compact as possible. So really, my hips are sometimes the limiting factor," he continued. “Fortunately, it was just the seat, it wasn’t the actual keel itself which is too narrow.

"Since then I have been able to get in a seat, and I do fit," he said. "I just tell them, ‘Make sure I’m comfortable. If you think that loses you a tenth of aerodynamics then I’ll just drive faster on track!”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.