27/08/2012
NEWS STORY
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… Is what you might reasonably expect to find written on a sticker on the sleek-looking quad bike in the picture. The reason for this is that the bike belongs to none other than Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo.
The picture gives a rare glimpse into what the Australian driver gets up to when he is not racing or testing and it was snapped by him for the upcoming Zoom auction of signed photos taken by every Formula One driver and team boss in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
As they say, every picture tells a story and the tale behind this one isn't just that Ricciardo is a big fan of riding quad bikes, it is about the delights on offer to anyone fortunate enough to live in Australia.
"Quad biking is awesome! There's a lot of great beaches near my home town Perth that are ideal and I like heading down to Lancelin or further north to Jurien Bay," says Ricciardo adding "camping and quad bike riding with my friends is a perfect weekend for me. Putting my feet up and a couple of cold beers never hurt." Pitpass would second that… though we prefer our beer at room temperature.
In addition to Ricciardo's handiwork, in our gallery readers will also find that photos from the auction taken by Sauber's Sergio Perez and former world champion Mario Andretti have recently been added.
Ferrari fans will be in seventh heaven looking at Andretti's photo as it shows a sea of its cars parked in front of the entrance to his vineyard. Andretti of course drove for the Scuderia in the 1970s and 1980s and, as he explains, the connection lives on.
"I took this picture April 17, 2012 because it was an amazing sight. There were 80 Ferraris parked at my winery in Napa Valley, California. I would have liked to get them all into the shot, but you get the idea. The Ferrari Club drives up the California coast to have lunch at the Andretti Winery every year. They meet somewhere down south and drive up in a caravan. It's a spectacular sight. And when a tour bus arrives at the winery during the event and some visitors say "Mario I love your car collection", I just smile and say 'thank you'. If people think they're all mine….so be it. (haha)"
Like Mark Webber, Perez has put his pet pooch under the spotlight in his photo and says "this is my dog Canelo. I really like him a lot since I have got him two years ago. Unfortunately I don't get to see him very often as he lives with my family in Guadalajara and I'm travelling most of the year. But he is always the first one I greet when I'm coming back to my home town in Mexico."
Fans who are keen to bid for one of these pieces of the drivers' personal lives should keep an eye on the Zoom website as well as its Twitter and Facebook pages.
We will be publishing more of the Zoom images exclusively over the next week and is an official media partner of the event which is run by marketing firm Influence and F1's industry monitor Formula Money.
Check out our Zoom gallery, which is updated on a daily basis, here