Daniel Ricciardo drives a virtual lap of Albert Park

Daniel Ricciardo is in Melbourne preparing to tackle his home turf, Albert Park, during the first round of the 2018 F1 season.

We were able to catch up with Ricciardo to discuss his hopes for the year and what he’s doing with Aston Martin in the near future, but he also gave us a run-down of the Albert Park street circuit.

Fortunately, F1 also put Danny in a simulator and recorded him talking through a lap of the track, which is by no means representative of his full ability.

During the media event, Ricciardo told us that the Albert Park circuit can be quite full-on due to it being used by traffic for the rest of the year.

“It’s pretty hectic straight away, even on the straight. Because it’s a street circuit there’s been traffic on it every day and it’s quite bumpy,” Ricciardo told us.

“Braking for turn one is really bumpy, you’d be amazed… sometimes on an onboard video you’ll hear this ‘ts ts ts’ noise, and some people are probably wondering what that is, but it’s just the car touching the ground.

“When you’re braking you get all the load form going so fast, and the downforce on the car hits quite hard. You kind of get thrown around a bit when you brake, so spotting the apex can be quite hard for turn one.

“It’s already a pretty quick corner, so the whole thing starts off quite lively.

“Going through the whole track is fairly bumpy, but I like that because it has character. We just went to Barcelona where they resurfaced the track, and that’s nice because it’s super-smooth, but I like the bumps and that change in the circuit.”

When asked what his favourite spot on the circuit is, he already had a choice in mind.

“I’d say my favourite turn is the high-speed left-right. I think that’s turns 11 and 12. I think this year that’s going to be 6th into 7th gear, so that’s like 270km/h or so through there.

“It’s quite short, so you don’t feel it for long, but for the few seconds you’re in the corner, you’re feeling ever part of it. It’s pretty intense.”