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The first thing that was weird was that he was early. It’s not that Daniel Ricciardo is late, far from it – as sportspeople go, he’s as prompt as it gets. But on this day, it was odd that he wanted to talk, for a while, and preferably, right now. We’d had countless chats in Grand Prix paddocks and the like, but ghost-writing his driver column for his (soon to be past) employer gives you much more of an insight in to what’s going through his head; no filter, no prying eyes peering, no timetable to keep, no line to toe. We’d done loads of these chats, by FaceTime, in cars, by pools, in motorhomes, at the kitchen table … but this one was different. He was ready, I wasn’t, and the phone rang.

Just as weird: he did way more talking than I did, and he did a lot of it. We talked the recent British GP at Silverstone, where the 2018 cars carried such incredible downforce that some of the sport’s most feared corners had become little more than curved straights. “I know some of the other guys are all about the stopwatch, but I couldn’t give a shit about that really, I just want it to be fun,” he mused, wondering aloud if it should look easy-flat to scythe through Maggots, Becketts etc. We then kicked around some ideas for the latest driver diary, some serious, some not-so. Why don’t we touch on contracts while we’re at it? OK, came the response. What followed was 41 minutes and 50 seconds of audio that was compelling, revelatory, surprising in parts and completely understandable in others. And a column that, now, will never see the light of day. Which for two people’s sake, is probably for the best …

Moving to Renault, whose best-placed driver in multiple Grands Prix has been lapped by the race-winner this season, is a ballsy move. A good one? Way too early to say. But all along, Ricciardo was adamant he was going to explore his first chance at Formula One free agency properly, that he wouldn’t be rushed, that he wanted to canvass every option and that he wanted to take his time. After teammate Max Verstappen re-signed with Red Bull until the end of 2020 in October 2017, the questions over whether Ricciardo would stay or go started in earnest. For months and months. In Melbourne this year for a season that hadn’t started yet, he was being asked more about the next one than the one that was about to begin. Verstappen’s early signature ensured the spotlight shone brightly in his direction, but this was being done on nobody’s timetable but his. It was mentally exhausting and he knew that he “needed to get some time back” after feeling the pinch more this year than ever before. He’s now got a chance to do just that before Belgium in a touch over three weeks’ time – and then the questions will really start …

“It’s the first time I’ve had the position of, I guess you’d call it freedom, and leverage,” he said as we wrapped up. “I wanted to see what happened with that.” Something happened, alright. There’s more, much more, to say here … but for now, it’s time to find that French phrasebook while pondering what a grandstand full of yellow will look like at Albert Park next March.