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AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has suggested Daniel Ricciardo may require surgery to repair a broken hand sustained from a crash in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix.
Ricciardo has conceded he was forced to turn into a barrier to avoid hitting fellow Australian Oscar Piastri after the McLaren driver had lost control of his MCL60 on the approach to the banked Turn 3 at Zandvoort.
Piastri had come to rest perpendicular to the barrier, and on the racing line, leaving Ricciardo with nowhere to go to ensure he did not broadside the 22-year-old Melburnian.
Unfortunately for Ricciardo, his own crash resulted in the steering wheel in his AT04 striking the back of his hand, breaking a metacarpal bone, and leading to him missing the rest of this weekend, and almost certainly next weekend’s Italian GP.
Speaking to Viaplay, Tost said: “For sure, he will not drive here and we will see what is going to happen for Monza, but maybe he has to have surgery. The doctors will decide in the next few days.
“Recovery for a normal person is up to six weeks, but he is a Formula 1 driver, and I hope this process will be shortened because we would like to have him in the car.
“Nevertheless, it has happened. It was a strange accident because he couldn’t do anything. Piastri was in front, went into the tyre wall and Daniel was just behind him. He couldn’t react and crashed.
“I told him that we are sorry from the team side and that he did a fantastic job, he could have been in the top 10.”
Ricciardo’s injury means reserve driver Liam Lawson has been promoted into the race seat to make his full F1 debut after FP1 drives with both AlphaTauri and Red Bull in the past.
The New Zealander, however, has just one practice session to acclimatise ahead of qualifying and Sunday’s grand prix.
Tost has confirmed, however, that Ricciardo will “be in the car as soon as the injury is better “.
He added: “He shouldn’t take it too seriously as something worse could have happened, but that is life. We are looking forward to when he is back.
“He smiled a bit, he is in quite a good mood, although he is in a lot of pain because it is quite a serious injury.
“I hope that he can sleep well and he will fly to see another doctor to get another analysis [of the injury] before they decide what to do.”
