Daniel Ricciardo injury: Christian Horner updates on potential F1 return

Jamie Woodhouse 03 Sep 2023 9:03 PM

Daniel Ricciardo holds his broken metacarpal.

红牛老板Christian Horner said there is not “any chance” that Daniel Ricciardo will be ready to return in Singapore.

The Aussie was put on the shelf after a free practice crash back at Zandvoort, during which he suffered a broken hand which required surgery.

Ricciardo of course missed the remainder of that weekend with Liam Lawson taking over his AlphaTauri seat, Lawson continuing in Ricciardo’s place for the Italian Grand Prix.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Daniel Ricciardo will not return in Singapore

There had been suggestions that Ricciardo, depending on the speed of his recovery, could be ready to return to the cockpit for the Singapore Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

However, Lawson is likely to be in action for AlphaTauri again around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with Red Bull boss Horner shutting down any hope that Ricciardo will return for their junior team at that round.

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“I think certainly Singapore, I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll be ready for that,” Horner told media including PlanetF1.com.

“And I think it will be optimistic for Japan.

“But I think his recovery is going well. He’s got mobility of the hand, he’s into rehabilitation now, but we’ve seen with motorcyclists, rushing comebacks can sometimes do more damage.

“So we just want to make sure he’s fully fit before he gets back in the car. I should think he’s pretty keen to be in the car in Suzuka. We just take it on a day by day basis and see how the recovery and nature takes its course.”

Monza represented Lawson’s first full race weekend with AlphaTauri and it was a positive outing for the New Zealander.

Less than two-tenths separated him and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda by the end of the Q2 qualifying stage, both drivers suffering elimination, while Lawson went on to score a P11 finish in the race, one which Tsunoda was not able to start following a power unit failure on the formation lap.