Daniel Ricciardo is parking the Honey Badger grin right where it matters: in the junior ranks.
The eight-time grand prix winner has unveiled a new step in his Daniel Ricciardo Series pathway, promising to personally help select two DRS karters for a coveted Ginetta Junior Scholarship assessment. It’s a proper bridge from karting to cars for teenagers who’ve grown up idolising Ricciardo’s late-braking bravado but need a realistic route into the sport.
Launched in 2019 around his Ricciardo Kart machinery, the DRS has been a steady feeder for young talent. Now there’s extra incentive: two DRS drivers, aged 14–17, will be put forward for the Ginetta evaluation, which tests fitness, media chops, pace and racecraft. The scholarship winner receives a fully funded seat for the 2027 Ginetta Junior Championship on the BTCC support bill — a paddock with real eyes on it.
Ricciardo broke the news with a typically warm holiday message to his drivers, dropping the line that “we — and by ‘we,’ I also mean me — will be selecting two drivers” for the scholarship. He added that he expects to be trackside at some DRS events next year. For a generation that grew up copying his shoey, that’s not nothing.
The timing is neat. Ricciardo officially stepped away from F1 in September after his final start for Racing Bulls at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, yielding the seat to Liam Lawson. He’s since signed on as a global ambassador for Ford, which will power Red Bull’s 2026 F1 programme. It’s kept him orbiting the sport without plunging straight back into the grind — and it’s allowed him to put real energy into the junior space.
There’s a nice bit of symmetry, too. Lando Norris — Ricciardo’s former McLaren teammate and the newly crowned 2025 F1 world champion — cut his teeth in Ginetta Juniors, winning four races on his way to third in 2014. It’s long been a gateway series for kids who can race, scrap, and learn cameras are always rolling.
On the senior side of the paddock, the number three is coming back to the front of the grid in 2026, albeit not on Ricciardo’s car. With rules now permitting number changes, Max Verstappen will switch to Ricciardo’s old race number after losing the 2025 title to Norris. You don’t need to be a marketing exec to see the layers there — and you can bet the DRS kids have noticed.
Ricciardo’s Ford role has already sparked whispers of a bigger presence when the new power unit era begins. RB team boss Laurent Mekies didn’t exactly pour cold water on the idea when asked about it at Monza, talking up the “family feeling” and “connection points” between Ford’s programme and the Red Bull ecosystem. Whether that amounts to an official role or simply more of Ricciardo’s face in the paddock remains to be seen.
For now, his focus is clear: giving teenagers a shot. The Ginetta Junior Scholarship is a hard-nosed test that goes beyond lap time. It measures how a young driver handles a long day, a camera lens, and the pressure of a single run that might change their year. And it sits in the real world — where budgets are tight and a fully funded season can be the difference between a career and a memory.
Ricciardo has always been good at reading a room, and the room right now needs access. Karting ladders are expensive and unforgiving, and too many good kids run out of rope before they even touch a race car. Offering two DRS drivers a crack at a proper scholarship is a small move with potentially big consequences — especially if it becomes an annual thing.
There’s also a calendar note to watch: Ford has pencilled in a season launch in Detroit on January 15 alongside Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls to unveil 2026 liveries. Whether Ricciardo appears isn’t confirmed. But even if he stays stateside and keeps his powder dry, his fingerprints are already on the next phase of his post-F1 life: where the big smile is pointed at the future, and the door to the paddock is propped open for whoever can sprint through it fastest.
