The chemistry between drivers and their race engineers has been romanticized in the world of Formula 1. Arguably, that aspect of an F1 driver’s interpersonal relationship is the most apparent and widely broadcasted. Through the media spectacle that is Formula 1, the world has been given gifts such as Lewis Hamilton and Peter Bonnington, Sebastian Vettel and Riccardo Adami, Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase. The list goes on. But Daniel Ricciardo has given Formula 1 a different kind of bromance within the paddock.

Courtesy of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, we all got a sneak peek into the world of F1 drivers. While Daniel Ricciardo stole the show, there was an unsung hero in the form of his relationship with his performance engineer, Michael Italiano. And the gift that is their relationship, gave a bountiful return on Instagram in 2018.

Ricciardo’s performance coach Michael Italiano posted a picture of the duo at the 2018 Russian Grand Prix paddock, captioning it “Dance like you would to Fisher.” Italiano was obviously referring to Grammy-nominated Australian music producer Paul Nicholas Fisher. However, he had garnished the posts with a plethora of hashtags.

Ricciardo quickly donned his funny hat and commented on Italiano’s post, “You gotta settle down on the hashtags bro. Instagrams gonna crash.”

Read More: $50M Daniel Ricciardo’s Side Hustle Benefits From the One Main Factor He Brings to the Table

Daniel Ricciardo won’t be racing in Formula 1 next year. That means that Italiano has to move on as well. And as it would appear, he has. That being said, he hasn’t gone that far away from the Honey Badger after all.

Michael Italiano ditches McLaren like Daniel Ricciardo for F1 rivals

Last year it was announced that Ricciardo had re-signed with Red Bull, albeit in a reserve driver role. And with that news, also comes the news of Ricciardo’s friend and performance engineer, Michael Italiano, jumping ship from McLaren.

While the Honey Badger has gone to Red Bull, it seems Italiano has joined their sister team, AlphaTauri. As per thesportsrush.com, “Michael Italiano is now a part of AlphaTauri as their performance coach. He will be working with Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda in their pursuit of a better 2023 season.”

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Will we see the Honey Badger make a spectacular comeback to the sport with the rumored 11th team in the form of Andretti-Cadillac?