Australia’s Grand Prix urges Daniel Ricciardo to ditch his social responsibilities and ‘shut out the world’ to give himself a shot at success at the Australian F1 Grand Prix

Australian motor racing great David Brabham has urged Daniel Ricciardo to ‘shut out the world’ so he can give himself every opportunity to silence the doubters in Sunday’s Australian F1 Grand Prix at Albert Park.

Ricciardo, 34, is one of the most popular identities in the sport, but Brabham wants to see results from the Perth-born driver on the grid – starting in Melbourne.

It follows two poor recent showings in Bahrain (13th) and Saudi Arabia (16th), with Ricciardo’s career potentially on the line.

“(As it stands) he may not have enough mojo to perform at the level Red Bull would be happy with,” said Brabham, who famously won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans race. A wide world of sports.

‘He’s not there to play second fiddle to (teammate Yuki) Tsunoda, so the pressure will undoubtedly be on him already.

‘Tsunoda surpasses him. ‘He (Ricciardo) has to dig deep and maybe even away from the wildcard role he has.’

Brabham added that he is aware that Ricciardo is ‘extremely popular and likable’ but would like to see him ‘shut out the world and focus on performing’ for his own sake.

Ricciardo finished 12th in the second practice on Friday afternoon.

And if Ricciardo feels the pressure, he doesn’t show it.

“I think some people on the outside are saying, ‘Oh, is it panic mode? Or is it crisis mode?, said the home-grown star.

‘I’m always excited. I know we probably won’t win this weekend, but maybe we can be in the top 10 and get a small bag of points.’

There will be one more practice session for the F1 superstars on Saturday from 12.30pm AEDT, before qualifying begins at 4 p.m.

The main race is at 15:00 local time on Sunday.