Daniel Ricciardo swapped yellow flags for yellow cards on Sunday, popping up in the stands at Brentford vs Newcastle while the rest of Formula 1 decamped to Interlagos.
The eight-time grand prix winner — who recently confirmed his retirement from F1 and a new role as a global racing ambassador with Ford — was spotted on the broadcast at the Gtech Community Stadium as Brentford won 3-1. Seated alongside him was Sky F1’s Natalie Pinkham, still recovering from neck surgery and forced to delay her planned return to on-site duty in Brazil.
Daniel Ricciardo at Brentford vs Newcastle! 🏁https://t.co/oPVdu3zsDs
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL)November 9, 2025
Pinkham’s late setback prompted a quick shuffle for Sky Sports F1: Simon Lazenby cut short his weekend off to anchor coverage from Saturday in São Paulo, while Craig Slater and Ted Kravitz tag-teamed Friday’s sessions.
Ricciardo and Pinkham go way back — he’s godfather to her son, Wilf — and the Aussie’s off-track kindness is a recurring theme among those who’ve worked with him. As Pinkham put it not long ago, the public sees the smile and the mischief; behind the scenes, the generosity runs deeper.
It’s been a winding final act to a career that delivered some of the sport’s loudest cheers. Ricciardo’s eight wins include seven with Red Bull and that cathartic 2021 triumph at Monza with McLaren. After losing his McLaren seat, he rejoined the Red Bull camp as reserve and worked his way back onto the grid with the sister team in 2023. A full Red Bull Racing recall never came, and his exit followed the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
This year, he put a full stop on the racing chapter and opened a new one with Ford. The American brand, partnered with Red Bull Powertrains for F1’s 2026 regulations, has Ricciardo front and center as a Global Ford Racing Ambassador. His brief? Lean into the “fun” that’s always powered him, with a particular focus on the Raptor brand and the broader Ford performance ecosystem — from F1 to Dakar, Le Mans to Bathurst. If you know Ricciardo, you know that tracks with the guy who once bought a Raptor before he bought a house.
Seeing him at a Premier League match, then, made a kind of sense. The travelling circus was at full tilt in Brazil, but Ricciardo — as he’s done more than once lately — chose a different paddock for the weekend, one with pies, floodlights and the kind of shouty atmosphere he’s always thrived on. He didn’t need a visor to soak it in.
The sight of Ricciardo and Pinkham together doubled as a neat snapshot of how F1’s personalities spill beyond the pit lane. Pinkham, one of Sky’s best conductors of the human moments beneath the lap times, has been open about her recovery, and her presence — even off-duty, scarfed up against the London chill — will be a welcome sign for fans waiting on her full return.
As for Ricciardo, retirement hasn’t dulled the magnetism. He’s traded parc fermé for press boxes and stages, swapping telemetry chats for brand strategy and off-road playtime, but he’s still orbiting the sport he defined for more than a decade. With Ford’s F1 partnership ramping towards 2026 — supplying Red Bull Racing and its sister outfit — expect to see him weaving between paddocks, OEM boardrooms and the occasional football stand.
On a Brazilian weekend that delivered its usual drama, a quick cutaway to a smiling Ricciardo in West London was a reminder: the Honey Badger’s left the grid, not the conversation.
