There is a gigantic a part of me that wonders simply how a lot the trendy period of automobile has dulled the effectiveness of the racer we as soon as knew as Daniel Ricciardo.
He’s by no means been the identical man behind the wheel because the new laws got here in, simply as the person we view as doubtlessly the best of all time, Sir Lewis Hamilton, has at instances appeared a shadow of the all-conquering racer of outdated.
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And if that win at Silverstone and Hamilton’s emotional response to it evidenced the hardships he had skilled, the questions he had raised about his personal talents and the necessity for validation which he, and his legendary standing, required, I spare an enormous thought for what these few years have carried out for Daniel and the way a lot they’ve made him query the craft and diminish the boldness which used to come back so naturally.
In at the moment’s period, Method 1, maybe greater than at any time in historical past, exists within the midst of the cult of persona. For Daniel, because the outcomes failed to come back and the questions began to fly, the model he had created for himself of the ever completely satisfied, lovable joker was maybe the one factor he had left.
However when even his smile began to wane, and because the realities of simply how troublesome this new spell was proving to be set in, there was much less and fewer alternative to be the goofball.
The hardships that existed behind the scenes, the toll that his new actuality was taking up him and had carried out now for years, grew to become too clear to disregard.
