It has been nearly two years since Daniel Ricciardo last lined up on the Formula One grid.
For a driver who spent over a decade in the sport and became one of its most popular personalities, his absence has definitely been noticeable.
His departure never sat right with many of us, or at least for a while.
But standing at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne, about 34km from where the Formula One circus was preparing for the Australian Grand Prix weekend, it was clear Ricciardo is not exactly missing the chaos.
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If anything, he seems much happier without it.
These days, the 36-year-old is still connected to motorsport through his role as a global ambassador for Ford, but the pressure and relentless travel that comes with F1 is well and truly gone.
What remains is only the fun part.
And at a Ford event a few days out from the race weekend, that meant throwing influencers and journalists alike around Calder Park in one of the wildest machines on four wheels.
Before meeting Ricciardo, I had already climbed out of the Red Bull Ampol Racing Supercar with clinical young ace, Broc Feeney, who had just taken me around in a hotlap.
Anyone who has experienced a hotlap inside a Supercar, let alone with a professional driver, will tell you it is a world-altering experience — one that left my body trembling.
The lap had been brutal in the best way possible.
The car aggressively overran kerbs, blasted down the straight at more than 250km/h and delivered the kind of adrenaline rush that makes your brain struggle to process what just happened.
I thought that would be the wildest moment of the day; nothing could possibly top it.
Then Ricciardo pulled up in the Ford Raptor T1+.
The Dakar rally truck is an absolute monster of a machine, and calling it a Raptor feels ever so appropriate.
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Powered by a V8 detuned to make just 265kW and 540Nm, the beast was built for the brutal punishment of the Dakar Rally. It sits high on massive double-wishbone suspension front and rear with huge off-road tyres and a race-built chassis designed to handle the toughest jumps, rocks and desert terrain that would destroy most vehicles.
Sliding into the passenger seat, Ricciardo looked across with a grin.
“You think that was crazy?” he said.
“This is more out of the box, don’t get me wrong, it’s still really fun.
“I think the next three minutes, you’ll lose your s***.”
Naturally, I told him to bring it on.
The lap started aggressively, like the famous T. rex chase scene from Jurassic Park, where the dinosaur crashes through the fence and suddenly everything is chaos.
Every moment in that scene is how I felt in the Dakar.
The Raptor roared as Ricciardo kept his foot buried in the throttle, charging down the straight before throwing the enormous truck into corners like it weighed half as much as it actually does.
There’s always that moment where you wait, pray he’ll lift off the throttle. Surely he has to slow down, any logical human would.
Not Ricciardo.
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He stayed flat across rough gravel sections, and he’s flat through the shallow water crossing as dirt and spray fires all around us.
But the moment that stood out came midway through the run.
The course ran through a tunnel with a crest at the exit. Earlier in the day, photographers had realised the rise could actually launch the truck if you hit it with enough speed.
Ricciardo loved the idea.
So he insists it be added to the journalists’ lap.
Flat out.
We blasted through the tunnel and suddenly the nose lifted. For a split second, the entire truck was airborne before crashing back down as the suspension soaked up the landing.
Jumping in a Dakar truck is the kind of thing you simply cannot prepare for.
Ricciardo’s laughing, while I’m wide-eyed and slightly stunned.
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After the lap, I asked him if he was enjoying life like this.
“This thing is a lot of fun,” he said with that iconic, large smile Formula One fans came to know so well.
Ricciardo may not be racing in F1 anymore, but he has hardly disappeared from the sport.
He remains involved through the Daniel Ricciardo Series, a karting championship designed to help young drivers enter the sport using DRS Ricciardo karts, with events held across the United Kingdom.
Away from the track, he continues to work with Ford and runs his fashion label Enchanté Clothing.
For the first time in years, Ricciardo appears to be living life on his own terms.
And judging by a flat-out lap in a Dakar truck around Calder Park, he is having plenty of fun doing it.
