It was undeniably a special weekend for the entire McLaren racing outfit at Circuit of The Americas, and the man that stood in the spotlight was Daniel Ricciardo, who adores the Southern American lifestyle and even dressed up as one for the initial proceedings on Thursday.

So, what was so special about the weekend? The Honey Badger finally got to take racing legend, Dale Earnhardt’s 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlos NASCAR stock car for a spin after winning a bet (race win at the 2021 Italian GP) against McLaren boss, Zak Brown.

But, that wasn’t it. Ricciardo also got to spend his weekend with a couple of NFL’s Buffalo Bills fans, who hardly had any clue about F1. It all started on Tuesday, and until Friday that week, the two were embracing the services of McLaren including sky-diving, a phone call with Zak Brown, and driving around in a McLaren road car.

On Saturday, as Ricciardo walked past with cameramen surrounding him, one of the Bills fans heaped praise on the Australian by comparing his paparazzi to that of Kim Kardashian’s.

What did the McLaren fans say?

In the backdrop of the two fans, Nolan Ringo and Matthew Reigelsperger, there was the #3 Wrangler parked with Ricciardo inside the cockpit. And there were cameras all around, finding ways to take snaps of both the car and the fan-favorite driver inside it.

Hence, Nolan reckoned that Ricciardo has a much bigger paparazzi compared to the world-famous media personality, Kim Kardashian.

“Kim Kardashian’s got nothing on the amount of paparazzi that Daniel Ricciardo has to deal with,” the Bills fan told McLaren.

Strong weekend ahead for Daniel Ricciardo?

It was indeed a slow start to Ricciardo’s campaign at McLaren. While Lando Norris was busy pulling big points out of each race weekend, Ricciardo was busy fighting outside the top 10. But, things took a wild turn post-summer break.

Although Norris’ pace is as same as ever, Ricciardo has visibly turned his game up a notch. He now has a race victory to his name, making him the 5th different race winner of the 2021 season and he is consistently outpacing his teammate on several occasions.

So, can Ricciardo produce another such weekend in Mexico? Well, it all depends on how Ferrari fare over the weekend. The Reds are likely to be much quicker than McLaren, thanks to their new engine update.

Hence, the only way Ricciardo is going to finish ahead of both the Ferrari is by having a commendable qualifying outing and not losing it at least until turn 4 of lap 1 of the race. But, what does the reality have in stock for the Honey Badger?

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