Daniel Riccardo gets inspiration from Naomi Osaka’s Black Lives Matter activism. Amid global protests on events happening in the United States, Daniel Riccardo chooses to participate in it in a unique style impacted by Naomi. She had earlier shown her form of protest by wearing 7 masks on 7 matches with the name of victims of police brutality and racial injustice imprinted on them. She won the US Open in September. Before the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi. Ricciardo was spotted wearing a face mask with ‘equality’ imprinted on it.
Who is Daniel Ricciardo?
F1 racer Daniel Ricciardo is an Italian-Australian racing driver who is currently competing in Formula One, under the Australian flag, for Renault. He made his debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix with the HRT team as part of a deal with Red Bull Racing, for whom he was test driving under its sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso. Ricciardo’s driver number is three. The Japanese tennis player not only inspired Riccardo but also Lewis Hamilton who is considered one of the best drivers of all times.
What did Lewis Hamilton say?
He had said “We have to continue to raise awareness and Naomi has been doing amazing, so huge congratulations to her, and I think she’s an incredible inspiration with what she’s done with her platform. I think we just have to continue to push on the issue.”
Before the Styrian Grand Prix when he was asked whether he felt he now needed to devote more focus to the 2020 championship rather than his advocacy for the Black Lives Matter movement, he said: “I don’t feel like I need to re-focus. I think if you watch the race, my race was pretty strong.
“I do naturally need to do a better job on the weekend but I wouldn’t say that I was distracted by any means. I continue to stay focused, as I was before, still focused on both trying to fight and win this championship, but also fighting for equal rights.”
While Riccardo in an interview had also said: “I saw after the US Open, was it Naomi? I saw what she’d done with her face mask and I was like this is a very strong voice for us, it is prime real estate, I saw she had used it really well and when I received this I was like, ‘it’s perfect’. So it should be that simple: treat everybody equally and everybody’s happy, that’s how the world goes on, but it’s not like that.”
Naomi’s protest
Naomi was seen wearing the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castle, and Tamir Rice who were victims of racial prejudice in the US. Naomi’s boyfriend, American rapper, and song-writer Cordae had also participated in the BLM movement. He had also gotten arrested for his peaceful protest.
Naomi Osaka in 2020
Now the world no.3, the Japanese played her last match on the 12th of September when she defeated Victoria Azarenka 1-6 6-3 6-3 in the final of the U.S. Open to win her 6th career title.
Presently, this year Naomi has a compiled 16-3 match record. Naomi conquered 1 title at the U.S. Open. Osaka was the finalist in New York.
