McLaren boss Zak Brown has revealed exactly what's on offer if Daniel Ricciardo can score a podium finish for his new team in 2021.
Ricciardo, who switched from Renault (now Alpine) to McLaren for this season, will earn a drive in a car that used to belong to NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt.
Brown has an extensive collection of historic race cars, including Earnhardt's 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Brown presented Ricciardo with a model of the famous car in a video released by the McLaren team, with a promise that a top-three finish would earn him a drive in the actual car.
https://twitter.com/ZBrownCEO/status/1377214280366489601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
"You can keep that version as a signing-on bonus," Brown told Ricciardo, who was holding the model.
"But I'm thinking, your first podium, you give the real thing a go."
Ricciardo, who has previously hinted at a desire to drive in the NASCAR series later in his career, couldn't hide his excitement.
"Yeah, that's awesome," he said, a number of times.
"Hell, yeah."
The Australian is a huge fan of the seven-time Winston Cup champion, who also won the Daytona 500. One of the reasons he uses the number three on his McLaren is in tribute to Earnhardt, who was killed in a last-lap crash at Daytona in 2001.
"Dale Earnhardt was kind of a hero of mine," Ricciardo said in 2018.
"The No.3 — it was my first go-kart number, so I already had a bit of affection to No.3. But being a fan of Dale's as well, that definitely made me want to run that number."
A podium finish should be well within Ricciardo's grasp in 2021, with the McLaren showing good speed so far.
The Australian outqualified teammate Lando Norris in the first race in Bahrain, with Norris going on to finish fourth in the race, while Ricciardo was seventh, after sustaining damage to his car in an early-race altercation with Pierre Gasly.
Ricciardo's former team boss at Renault, Cyril Abiteboul, famously lost a bet that he'd get a tattoo if the Australian could finish on the podium in 2020, something Ricciardo did twice.
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