Daniel Joseph Ricciardo was born on 1 July 1989 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia, the son of Giuseppe "Joe" and Grace Ricciardo. Ricciardo has Italian blood as his father is originally Italian. Daniel has a sister named Michelle. Father Joe is a car enthusiast and founded GR Engineering and JR Engineering. He also participated in several races in Australia.
Ricciardo drove his first karting race when he was nine years old as a member of the Tiger Kart Club (TKC). During his youth, he drove mostly races in his area, but during the last part of his karting period he also drove at national races. Because he liked racing so much, he decided to sign up for the Western Australian Formula Ford Championship.
With a 15-year-old Van Diemen, he finished in eighth place in the final standings in 2005. After gaining experience in the single-seaters, Ricciardo won a scholarship in the Formula BMW Asian Championship with Eurasia Motorsport. The following year he finished third in the championship behind Le Mans winner Earl Bamber and others. Ricciardo continued his career in Europe in the Formula Renault category.
From 2008 he was part of the Red Bull Junior Program. He became the British Formula 3 Champion in 2009 and finished second in the World Series by Renault 3.5 in 2010. For 2011, Ricciardo would again compete for the title in this class. The season was halfway through when he got the chance from HRT to get into a Formula 1 car as a Grand Prix driver. Daniel had already tested for Toro Rosso before. This deal was made possible by Red Bull.
Ricciardo made his debut at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. He raced eleven races during his first season and saw the finish nine times. In 2012 he moved to Toro Rosso, and at the opening race of the season, he scored ninth place at his home race, which was his first points in Formula 1. After saying goodbye to Mark Webber, Daniel was promoted to Red Bull Racing.
In his first race for his new team, he finished second and was on the podium, but was later disqualified. During his first season in the main stable, he was faster than world champion Vettel, scoring eight podiums including three victories. After 2014 he scored four more victories.
In the summer of 2018, he decided to join the Renault factory team for the 2019 season.