MOTORSPORT: carsales’ Dan Ricciardo in Supercars

Carsales’ global ambassador Daniel Ricciardo has swapped his Renault F1 car for a Supercar ahead of the season opening Australian Rolex F1 Grand Prix.

Ricciardo sampled Rick Kelly’s Castrol Nissan Altima Supercar at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne’s northwest.

It’s not Ricciardo’s first taste of a Supercar, when in Red Bull colours, ‘our Dan’ did some laps in Triple Eight’s Holden Supercar-based panel van

Ricciardo said he was impressed with Castrol-sponsored Altima’s performance.

"I expected it to be good... but I’ve never really driven any serious race car with a roof on it; it’s always been formula cars, so I didn’t really know what to expect either.

"At the end of the day, it’s the top level of racing so it’s different obviously to formula cars, the speeds and the style of the car, but it’s still the top tier for tin top racing, as we call it, so I mean just everything, the car control.

"I’ve always loved Supercars for how close they race, the bit of bumping and just having that judgment at that speed is pretty cool."

Kelly, who will race the Nissan at this weekend’s second round of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship which supports the F1 GP, said he was impressed with Ricciardo, who got up to speed in a Supercar quickly.

"He was very kind on the machinery, obviously, so shifting well and truly early and stuff like that... But to see the way he got in, went out, and did laps with me in the car with him, and then he stepped it up every single lap, just crept up on the brake markers and changed his inputs to improve every single lap.

"It’d be pretty special to have that name on the car for October [Bathurst] but it wouldn’t be Dan co-driving with me, it’d be me co-driving with Dan," Kelly stated.