“I saw after the US Open”- Daniel Ricciardo on taking inspiration from Naomi Osaka before wearing ‘equality mask’

Tanish Chachra | 25/09/2020
"I saw after the US Open"- Daniel Ricciardo on taking inspiration from Naomi Osaka before wearing 'equality mask'

“I saw after the US Open”- Daniel Ricciardo on how he got inspired by Naomi Osaka before wearing a mask scribbled equality over it.

Daniel Ricciardo before the FP1 on Friday appeared wearing a mask written equality on it, showing solidarity support to anti-racism movement across the globe.

Ricciardo later confirmed that his move was somewhat inspired by Naomi Osaka, as the Japanese Tennis star did a similar thing before registering her triumph in the US Open, scribbling the name of victims of racial injustices on different masks.

“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,” began Ricciardo.

“I saw she’d 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.
“I’m raising some sort of awareness, if somebody sees it and they’re like, ‘actually you’re right, let’s be kinder to people and they’ll be kinder in return’ – it should be that simple.”

Lewis Hamilton also inspired by Osaka

Ricciardo is not the only driver in the paddock to be inspired by Osaka as Lewis Hamilton has claimed that even he is inspired by her. “We have to continue to raise awareness [of inequality] and Naomi has been doing amazing,” he said.
“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,” Hamilton said at the last race at Mugello.”
Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Daniel Ricciardo Lewis Hamilton Mercedes naomi osaka Renault

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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