Ricciardo, 22, signed a three-year contract with Red Bull’s second team, Italian-based Scuderia Toro Rosso, starting in the 2012 season alongside Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne.
He will join seasoned veteran Mark Webber as the only two Aussies on the circuit - and Ricciardo, who was born and raised in Perth, is hoping for a break-out year after making his debut in 2011 with small Spanish team HRT.
“Hopefully (I’ll go) very well. We’ll see,” Ricciardo told Perth radio 6PR.
“It’s always hard to know before the start of a new season because each year, every team designs a new car.
“So until you start testing in February, it’s hard to really know how good the design is for the car and until you put it on the track you can’t really know how competitive you’ll be.”
After racing 11 times for Hispania this season, Ricciardo admitted he was hoping a better car with Toro Rosso would help him produce better results.
“At Formula One, the level of drivers is all very elite, so if someone’s been given a bit better car then most likely they’ll perform better with that,” he said.
“But I’m hoping I’ll be around the points, you know, scoring top tens and I’d love a podium sooner or later.
“But whether it will come next year - we’ll see what happens.”
Despite F1 cars routinely reaching speeds of over 300km an hour during races, Ricciardo insists the intensity of F1 racing doesn’t scare him.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s scary, it’s a bit of an adrenaline rush,” Ricciardo said.
“I mean, we’ve done it since we were young, with go-carts - you don’t really get any closer than that, you’re sort of bumping each other around.
“So I think you get that out of your system very early from racing and then you just get used to it as you get older and older and get into bigger and faster cars."
He said although there was always a small fear of crashing in the back of his mind, that all disappears once the race has started.
“I mean, maybe there’s a small little thing there in the back of your mind,” Ricciardo said.
“But I think when you’re racing and you’ve got that sort of competitive mode on, then really you’re just trying to find a way to get past or move forward.
“It’s really the last thing on your mind.
“I don’t want to sound too big-headed saying this, but you always want to go faster - I would love if they said, ‘we’re going to make them even faster’.”