Ricciardo will hold Renault boss Abiteboul to F1 podium tattoo bet

Daniel Ricciardo says he and Renault Formula 1 team boss Cyril Abiteboul will honour their tattoo pledge following his podium finish at the Eifel Grand Prix.

Ricciardo claimed Renault’s first podium in nine years on Sunday by finishing third at the Nurburgring and subsequently won his podium bet with Abiteboul.

The Australian placed a wager with Abiteboul earlier this season that if he finished on the podium then they would proceed to get matching tattoos.

After Ricciardo stood on the rostrum for the first time since winning in Monaco in 2018, he will now choose a German-themed tattoo design for his Renault boss.

"It's real, it's going to happen," said Ricciardo. "We'll have to do some thinking now, but probably it will be something to do with me, but I think with a German flavour.

"This is obviously the place we did it. A little tip of the hat to something traditional in Germany as well."

While Ricciardo gets to choose the design, Abiteboul will have final say on location and the size of the tattoo.

“He gets to choose the design and I get to choose the location and the size,” Abiteboul explained. “Size matters! I’m laughing because Daniel is leaving [the motorhome] and size matters Daniel!

“As long as I’ve got the size I think I can cope with, get away with any design.”

Abiteboul stressed he is a “man of my word” but just needs some time to decide upon the important finer details before he gets inked.

“I remember that night in Silverstone, Thursday evening in Silverstone last year, where Daniel was showing me a new tattoo that he had,” he added. “I asked him ‘how do you get there? What’s the sort of mental journey to get to that kind of tattoo?’

“He told me ‘I was just walking in front of that tattoo place and I thought let’s do one’. OK, alright.

“So, I thought let’s do something proper. So, if you do your podium, I’ll do one, and I’m a man of my word. I just need a bit of time to decide the size and the location.”