Daniel Ricciardo doesn't subscribe to a popular sex superstition having disproved it himself.
The loveable Aussie could have raced in Formula 1 for the final time at the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Racing Bulls team reportedly considering giving his seat to youngster Liam Lawson for the final six Grand Prix of 2024.
It's been a tough few years for him after leaving Red Bull in 2019, winning just one race in his five-and-half seasons since. A number of factors have contributed to his career declining.
But Ricciardo is assured one of them is not getting intimate before a race weekend. He previously discussed the sporting superstition of not having sex before a big event.
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Appearing on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard in November 2020, he explained: "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 found love with actress Heidi Berger, the daughter of former F1 driver Gerhard who competed in 14 seasons between 1984 and 1997 and twice finished third in the championship for Ferrari. Heidi is regularly seen in the paddock supporting her boyfriend.
Despite once following the no-sex rule, he now considers himself wholly “anti-superstition”, believing it can be used an easy way out of taking accountability for your shortcomings.
“I feel it’s a sign of fear, not fear but that you’re putting a sign of doubt in your own head already,” Ricciardo 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.”
