It was on a September night in Monza, racked by the ennui of a torrid season, that Daniel Ricciardo decided to tune out by watching the women’s US Open final. Captivated by Emma Raducanu’s wondrous run at Flushing Meadows, he had already sent the teenager a note to wish her luck.
“I thought I would watch the start, then get some sleep,” he reflects. “But I couldn’t turn it off. It was amazing –I ended up going to bed at 1am. I sent her another message saying, ‘If the race doesn’t go well, I blame you’.”
