Daniel Ricciardo has admitted the Visa Cash App RB driver rues Formula 1 scrapping a ‘scary’ factor, which Stefano Domenicali has stated might now be revisited for 2030.
The Australian has seen a lot since Ricciardo first joined the F1 field mid-season in 2011 with HRT. He debuted in the pinnacle of motorsport at the British Grand Prix, before switching to Toro Rosso in 2012. Now, Ricciardo is up to 247 race entries at the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP.
Ricciardo has even won eight of his 245 Grand Prix starts ahead of this week’s race at Imola. The 34-year-old has further stood on 32 podiums and secured three pole positions. But F1 is not as ‘intimidating’ as it once was for the Perth native and has not been for the last decade.
Daniel Ricciardo rues F1 swapping ‘scary’ V8 engines for V6 turbo-hybrid power units
Formula 1 ditching V8 engines for 1.6L V6 turbo-hybrid power units in 2014 continues to be a point of frustration for Ricciardo. The RB driver found the roar of the V8 engines he raced with from 2011 to 2013 offered a greater sense of occasion from the moment they fired up.
The sound of the Cosworth 2.4L V8 engine HRT used in 2011 and the units Ferrari provided Toro Rosso in 2012 and 2013 let Ricciardo knew it was show time. But the turbo-hybrid units from Renault, Mercedes and Honda he has used since are a far cry without the intense roar.
READ MORE: 5 unforgettable Emilia Romagna GP moments, with Bottas and Russell’s crash
“When I first joined F1, the other engine was much louder,” Ricciardo stated in F1’s Thursday press conference at the Emilia Romagna GP. “When you get it fired up from the back, you’re waiting for it. It cranks. And then when it starts, you feel like that kind of tingle in your spine.
“Maybe it’s just because I was younger, inexperienced and still quite intimidated probably by the sport. But when the engine would fire up, it was like, ‘Woah’. Yeah, it was intimidating. It was more scary.
“I don’t know if I was to join now if that would be the same because it’s new or because the sound is different. But I do feel an element of it was the sound. And it did sound like kind of an animal ready to be unleashed. So, I remember that feeling vividly. That was a scary one.
“Then once you get on track, you’re in your happy place and you get it comfortable. In the garage when you’re waiting and it starts and you’re like, ‘Alright, it’s going to get serious pretty soon’. That was a cool, scary feeling.”
Stefano Domenicali has admitted that F1 could ditch hybrids in 2030
Ricciardo might see the sense of occasion that the V8 engines brought return after F1’s CEO Domenicali revealed his desire to improve the noise. But the Australian would have to wait until 2030, and hope F1’s 2026 engine regulation changes also deliver the right foundations.
READ MORE: Everything we know so far about F1’s 2026 engine and chassis regulations
F1 and the FIA are still to define the engine and chassis regulations for 2026. But the tweaks will see Formula 1 run fully sustainable fuels, which Domenicali says may allow the series to also remove the hybrid technology from the power units when it looks at 2030’s regulations.
Domenicali said, via Autosport: “As soon as the 2026 regulations are defined, we will start to think about what the next steps will be, such as the 2030 engine.
“It is a personal consideration of mine not yet shared with the teams, even if we have spoken about it with the FIA, that if sustainable fuels work, we will need to carefully evaluate whether to continue with hybrid or whether better solutions will be available.”
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