#ricalbon

First, let's get some quick facts out of the way.

Age gap: 6-7 year age gap between the two drivers with Alex being 28 (born 1996) and Daniel, 34 years old (born 1989).

Height difference: Alex (1,86 m) is 7 cm taller than Daniel (1,79 m).

Nationality: Alex races for Thailand but holds a dual citizenship with England. Daniel is Australian with Italian dual citizenship.

Religion: Alex practices Buddhism. Daniel was raised Catholic, though it is unclear if he actively practices it.

Family: Daniel and Alex both seem very family-oriented. Daniel has an older sister and two supportive parents. Alex is the eldest to a brother and three sisters. His parents are separated (there's lots of lore there but I won't go into it here). Alex also has a lot of pets.

Social media: They follow each other on Instagram.

Photo taken from this article

Some of the overlaps and differences in their racing career as of yet. For more details, consult this Daniel Ricciardo Wikipedia Page and this Alex Albon Primer.

Both were Red Bull drivers and both were teammates with Max Verstappen.

Alex talks in an interview about how he related to Daniel's struggles at McLaren.

He also discussed Daniel's 2023 return to F1 in this interview, addressing his own hiatus as well.

They recently crashed at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix during the Lap 1 in Turn 2. The stewards determined that it was a first lap incident with no further actions taken.

In Formula 1, Alex Albon currently has 2 podiums but no race wins. Daniel Ricciardo has 32 podiums and 8 race wins. However, Alex is widely accepted as a good driver overperforming in a poor car whereas Daniel has been under a lot of media pressure with many commentators and fan spaces saying he is past his prime and that he no longer belongs in the sport. This definitely oversimplifies their current situations and I am writing this in June 2024, so these narratives are subject to change based on upcoming performances.

Now let's look at a timeline of interactions between the two that have been captured or shared with the public:

September 29, 2019: A video of Lando playfully shoving Alex on an unsuspecting Daniel is shared online.

January 10, 2022: Alex and Jenson Button drive Ricciardo karts at a karting event.

May 28, 2022: Alex mentions on Episode 9 of The Williams Warm-Up that he lives 30 m away from Daniel in Monaco. (This could mean literally 30 m but I think it’s just to emphasize that they live really close to one another).

August 28, 2022: Alex and Daniel along with other drivers are seen sitting together as they wait for the national anthem at the Belgian GP.

Photo taken from this reddit thread.

Miscellaneous 2022: Difficult for me to place all of these pictures on a specific dates but here are links to more photos of Daniel and Alex chatting during the 2022 season. Link 1 & Link 2

November 14, 2022: Alex is featured in Daniel's photo dump on his daniel3.jpg account.

November 23, 2022: Here is what Alex has to say about the end of year dinner.

Screenshot taken from @/formuleo_ on X

June 20, 2023: Alex and Lily are featured in Daniel's Canadian GP Instagram dump on his official account.

July 11, 2023: Alex and Daniel are filmed conversing at the Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone.

July 13, 2023: Alex includes a picture of Daniel in his British GP dump on Instagram.

July 26, 2023: Daniel captions a photo dump "Albon greetings" on his daniel3.jpg account, showing Alex flipping him off when they were sharing a jet with Lando and George.

July 28, 2023: Alex and Daniel are filmed talking after qualifying at the Belgian GP. A video of them laughing before a joint Williams and AlphaTauri fan zone event is also posted.

October 30, 2023: After the Mexican GP, Alex mentions Daniel in an interview regarding the Williams & AlphaTauri race in the Construtors' ranking: "Daniel’s pace is something to be a bit worried about."

November 29, 2023: Alex and Daniel are sat next to each other at the end of the season dinner with all of the drivers.

February 21, 2024: Alex and Daniel are chatting during the official photoshoot for the 2024 F1 season.

February 29, 2024: Williams and VCARB share a fan zone event in Bahrain. Alex and Daniel have many nice pictures taken of them and Alex posts some pictures of the four drivers on his Instagram story.

March 8, 2024: Season 6, Episode 2 of Drive to Survive where Alex jokingly creates the plot for the episode when Daniel returns to the grid.

March 22, 2024: Williams and VCARB share a fan zone event in Australia. To celebrate Alex's birthday, all four drivers decorate cupcakes.

April 7, 2024: Despite crashing with one another at the Japanese GP, Alex and Daniel are seen walking together with good vibes only.

April 18, 2024: Daniel posts multiple pictures of Alex playing video games on the plane with the caption "I got no idea what he was playing but boy was in deep"

Photos taken by Daniel Ricciardo on @/daniel3.jpg on Instagram

April 27, 2024: Formula 1 YouTube Episode of Box Of BLUFFS! The first official F1 content featuring only the two of them. Lots of cute banter and laughter shared in this video.

May 19, 2024: Alex and Daniel are photographed, leaving the Imola GP in a car by themselves.

Photo taken from @/ritchiardo on X

June 9, 2024: Alex and Daniel can be seen talking together in the media pen.

June 12, 2024: Alex posts a selfie of himself on Instagram wearing an Enchanté hoodie gifted by Daniel during the Canadian GP.

June 13, 2024: Daniel comments on Alex’s recent post “Anytime buddy. The clothing. The overtake, pull a stunt like that again and we’re done.”

June 18, 2024: Daniel posts a picture of Alex in his daniel3.jpg photo dump and Alex likes the post less than an hour after it’s been posted.

Screenshot taken by me. Photo from daniel3.jpg on Instagram

June 20, 2024: Alex mentions Daniel multiple times during a fan meet at the 2024 Spanish GP, saying Daniel is the funniest driver on the grid, that they talk about their merch lines together, and describing his double overtake at the Canadian GP.