Daniel Ricciardo's Formula One career may be over - but he remains so beloved in America that the promoter of the US Grand Prix is desperate to get the Australian back to Austin to renew his love affair with Stateside F1 fans.
The Texas race on October 20 will be the first since Red Bull's sister team RB dropped Ricciardo and replaced him with New Zealander Liam Lawson for the rest of the season, seemingly signalling an end to the 35-year-old's distinguished career in F1.
But race promoter Bobby Epstein, mindful of just how popular Ricciardo has been down the years in the US with his colourful, ebullient personality winning over the fans, is sure the great entertainer from Perth could still attend the Austin race in another role.
"I'm not sure necessarily people are buying tickets to come see him race if he's not in a competitive car, right?," Epstein told reporters.
"If you're coming, though, because he's part of the F1 community, I think he can still be part of the F1 community in a pretty meaningful way. And he's really, really loved in Texas, and I think he likes it here.
"I hope he's still coming here because we've got a lot of people that would love to shake his hand or get his autograph or take a picture or just see him around town. We'll keep him busy."
Ricciardo has always tried to pull out the stops for the fans in Texas, strutting around in his cowboy hat and even trotting into the paddock on horseback a couple of years ago.
But while he's a winner for Epstein at the box office, his fellow Australian Oscar Piastri may be doing just as much because his McLaren team has helped make this year's race a much more open affair.
Epstein admitted ticket sales for Austin have rocketed since Max Verstappen stopped winning and McLaren started making huge inroads into his championship lead.
Verstappen started the season by winning four of the first five races and looked set to have effectively wrapped up his fourth drivers' title before the circuit even got to Texas.
But since McLaren's Lando Norris became his closest challenger with a little help from his race-winning teammate Piastri, its all changed.
"Our ticket sales really took off when Max stopped winning, and it got more competitive," Epstein said.
The promoter had feared a "weakest year in four since the pandemic" but reckoned that sales had been on the up, with the Austin weekend also helped by the hosting an Eminem concert after Saturday's sprint race on October 19, with a crowd of 130,000 to 150,000 expected that day.
With Reuters
