Poor Daniel Ricciardo. Once again he is there, chasing that podium which now seems like an unattainable mirage, a dream vanished into thin air of a career that should have been great, legendary, and instead was lost forever in the indifference of a paddock that did not he never really understood it.
Yet Ricciardo was, for a certain period, one of the most loved, most charismatic, most spectacular drivers in Formula 1. That dazzling smile of his, that way of approaching races almost as if it were a game, that lightness that he managed to convey even in the most difficult moments: all this had made him a true favorite of the fans, one of those champions who know how to win people’s hearts as well as checkered flags.
Among other things, he made the best overtaking ever, the one in 2017 in the crazy race in Baku. Do you remember? After yet another restart due to the entry of the Safety Car, Ricciardo with the Red Bull engages in a challenge at the limit of 350 km/h with the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and the two Williams of Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa. His engine had less horsepower than the monstrous Mercedes and – without even having DRS – Daniel follows in the wake of Grove’s single-seaters and with a film library braking on the inside he suddenly gains three positions and places himself behind Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel . A maneuver that will be fundamental to guarantee him his only victory of the season.
Even today there are those who believe in him, those who would like to see him up there again, on the podium like in the good times. And he, stubborn as only certain Australians can be, is struggling because he thinks he can still achieve that mirage.
However, after eighth place in Canada, Ricciardo clung to that result as if it were a last resort. “I needed a result like this,” he told journalists, almost emotionally. It’s a shame that that result – an eighth place, nothing more – pairs with the five finishes in the top 10 of his teammate Tsunoda. A trifle, a nothing.
Yet, as too often happens in this sport, Ricciardo was not understood, he was not valued, he was not put in a position to express his full potential. Perhaps a victim of his own style, of his innate friendliness, of that charisma that made him unique but which paradoxically ended up obscuring his real value as a pilot.
And so here he is, 34 years old, eight times Grand Prix winner, forced to fight for a contract renewal, overtaken by his teammate Tsunoda.
Yet Ricciardo doesn’t want to give up. He will turn 35 next July 1st and is clinging to the “Red Bull family” as if it were his last lifeline. “I don’t see myself anywhere else,” he says. And he also has the courage to claim his place, to claim to seriously “earn” it, almost as if F1 was still his kingdom and not a world in which he has irremediably lost himself.
Poor Daniel. Poor because today he also has many enemies. “His image – Jacques Villeneuve maliciously observed – kept him on track more than the results”. Will be. But it is difficult to see Daniel as a pilot with a sad fate, someone who persists in chasing a dream that no longer belongs to him.
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