Daniel Ricciardo spotted alongside Max Verstappen as the duo captured playing padel before the F1 Australian GP
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was spotted with former teammate Daniel Ricciardo ahead of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. The Dutch driver is heading into the upcoming season intending to become only the second driver after Michael Schumacher to win five consecutive driver's championships.
The 27-year-old had a battle on his hands in the second half of the 2024 season as he faced stiff competition from McLaren driver Lando Norris. Verstappen only managed to win just two of the last 14 races but still held a comfortable gap to the British driver to capture his fourth title.
In a picture floating on the social media platform, Instagram, Max Verstappen looked relaxed ahead of the start of the new season and was spotted playing padel with former F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo in Melbourne and two others.
Max Verstappen was teammates with Daniel Ricciardo on the Austrian team from 2016 to 2018 and shared a friendly yet competitive dynamic with the Aussie. Speaking with F1.com in the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, which was Ricciardo's last race in the sport, the four-time F1 world champion gave an insight into his friendship with the eight-time race winner and said:
“Daniel and I of course go a long way back. We have always had a great relationship, great friendship, and a lot of respect for each other as well, so he’s just a great guy. [We] get on well, it just clicks.
"There is no fake person, we just get along and are easygoing, we are like that. He will for sure be remembered as a very fast driver, I think everyone knows that, but also as a great guy in the paddock," he added.
Daniel Ricciardo remains the only driver who defeated Max Verstappen over a season in the same team twice in F1.
Max Verstappen previews the 2025 Australian GP this weekend
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that he believed that the RB21 was not the "quickest at the moment" on the grid ahead of the season opener in Melbourne.
Speaking in the pre-race press conference, the 27-year-old reflected on the Austrian team's standing and said:
“I know that we are not the quickest at the moment, but again it’s a very long season. If you would have asked that question here last year then at the end of the season again it looked completely different, so a lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula 1.”
"We’ll try our best to make it as competitive as possible. It’s the final year of the regulations so I guess up to a certain point you focus on this year and then naturally you focus on a whole different thing," he added.
RB21 looked a handful at times in the hands of both Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson during the official pre-season testing in late February.