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McLaren CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella have both expressed their support and sympathy for Daniel Ricciardo.
After two races into his F1 comeback, Ricciardo is out of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, and is almost certainly out of the Italian GP next weekend after breaking a bone in his left hand following a crash in practice at Zandvoort.
At present, it is unknown as to how long Ricciardo faces on the sidelines, with AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost conceding surgery may yet be required.
The injury comes at a time when Ricciardo was rebuilding his F1 career after being jettisoned by McLaren at the end of last season following a disappointing two years with the team despite the fact he had a year remaining on his contract.
Despite the circumstances under which Ricciardo departed the team, the 33-year-old at least left on good terms, leaving Brown and Stella expressing empathy for their former driver.
“It’s a real shame that he injured himself,” said Stella.
“It’s been great to see him back. We all have a great relationship with Daniel, we kind of support him, and it was also good to see was quite quick up until that point, I think he was setting some competitive lap times.
“So it’s a shame, and I hope he will be in condition to come back soon and show the competitiveness that he seemed to be having in this early part of his comeback.”
Brown additionally conceded it has been “great” to see Ricciardo back on track, with the Australian handed his second chance after AlphaTauri sacked Nyck de Vries after just 10 races.
“I think he’s doing an excellent job,” said Brown.
“You know, (Yuki) Tsunoda is very quick, and he’s proven to be every bit as quick, if not a little bit quicker.
“So hopefully he can come back quickly but I don’t know how bad the break is.”
