Daniel Ricciardo reckons a popular pre-race sex superstition actually works the other way around having improved his Grand Prix performance with a cheeky frolic
Daniel Ricciardo U-turned on a Formula One sex superstition after taking it upon himself to disprove it.
We may have seen the last of the Aussie in F1 after the Singapore Grand Prix, in which he claimed the fastest lap and won driver of the day from fans. It’s been widely speculated he’ll be replaced by Racing Bulls with Liam Lawson for the final six races of the season.
After showing early promise with Red Bull, his career hasn’t panned out as hoped. But one thing Ricciardo won’t be blaming it on is his bedroom antics before a race weekend.
He once bought into the common sports superstition that you should abstain from sex before major competitions, explaining why he changed his opinion on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard in November 2020. Ricciardo said: “I used to [believe in it].
“But not any more. I went against my rules obviously once and I was probably even better on Sunday so it’s all good. I threw that one out a few years ago.”
Ricciardo has since begun dating actress Heidi Berger, the daughter of ex-F1 star Gerhard Berger. She’s often spotted cheering on her beau from the paddock.
Despite previously adhering to the no-sex-before-race rule, Ricciardo now brands himself as “anti-superstition”, suggesting that such beliefs are just excuses to avoid facing up to one’s own failings. “I feel it’s a sign of fear, not fear but that you’re putting a sign of doubt in your own head already,” he continued.
“It’s kind of like an excuse for something to go wrong. It’s easy to have a lack of accountability if you’ve got a superstition. It’s like ‘I had a bad race because I didn’t put my left sock on first’. I might brush off the reality of why I had a bad race because I didn’t put my sock on the right way.
“I don’t like it. If that was my tradition and I forgot to do it and I’m jumping in a car that’s doing 200 miles an hour, is that good for my headspace? You can’t have anything like that creeping in.”
