“Children have to find their passion for something and everything and find the self-confidence to take risks, and that is not easy for many,” says Ricciardo from Abu Dhabi, shortly after the start of the last Formula 1 Grand Prix race for them 2021 season.
“Growing up and dealing with school is intimidating. You negotiate through circles of friends, trying to find out how you fit in, without knowing what the future might bring. And sometimes school books and lessons just don’t do it for you. “
Daniel Ricciardo at full throttle.Credit:Getty Images
Hands on Learning began as an experiment at Frankston High School in 1999 and is now conducted by 110 schools in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Tasmania.
The program aims to encourage students with difficulty to learn personal and social responsibility. You build your own projects outside of the classroom and gain confidence and self-esteem by working in small groups with craft teachers in areas such as animal husbandry or carpentry.
Research carried out for Save the Children shows that it works: 95 percent of the participants finish school, get an education or a job.
Ricciardo, who is returning to Australia this week to spend time with his family, says he found school more enjoyable when he did an internship outside of the classroom. He worked as a waiter in cafes and learned the trade in his father’s earth moving company.
Before heading home, he spent time talking online to visibly impressed Hands on Learning students across Australia. When one of them asked which subject he liked best at school, Ricciardo grinned and replied, “Physical education”.
He drove car races throughout his school years and started karting at the age of nine.
As he struggled through the year 12, he traveled to Asia every three weeks to compete in the Formula BMW Asian Series on a racing scholarship.
Ricciardo drinks from his shoe after winning the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in September.Credit:AP
“I finished my essays on the plane and adjusted my lessons in between, but I was lucky: I found my passion,” he says.
And that, he says, is where the key to success in school lies: the freedom to seek out what might spark lasting interest.
It was enduring. Ricciardo’s current contract with the McLaren F1 team runs for another two years and he believes he will have a few more years of Grand Prix driving after that.
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As the first and only Formula One driver from Perth, he says the biggest lesson he’s learned is that you’ve found your passion, “You have to stick to your guns and not let anyone tell you that you are it cannot ”.
“If you can do the things that make you happy, you get to a point where it feels almost careless to do it.”
Now that he had reached such a point and left what he called “a time when I was younger, being very selfish and getting my bearings in a tough sport,” he was ready to give something back .
To the children.
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