Daniel Ricciardo appears unlikely to return to F1 until the Qatar Grand Prix despite commencing rehabilitation on his broken left hand.
Ricciardo underwent surgery on August 27 to repair a multiple break of the metacarpal on his little finger, with four screws and a plate inserted, sustained in a crash in Friday practice for the recent Dutch GP.
The 34-year-old was in the third race of his comeback when he crashed into a barrier at Zandvoort in order to avoid the stricken Oscar Piastri who had been involved in his own incident moments earlier in his McLaren.
The injury naturally ruled Ricciardo out of the race at Zandvoort and the weekend’s Italian GP, and now it appears certain he will also miss the next two races in Singapore and Japan, with the event in Doha on October 6-8 next up beyond those.
Providing an update on Ricciardo’s recovery, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “Certainly Singapore, I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll be ready for then, and I think it would be optimistic for Japan.
“But his recovery is going well, he’s got mobility of the hand, and he’s into rehabilitation now.
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“But we’ve seen with motorcyclists rushing comebacks, they can sometimes do more damage. We just want to make sure he’s fully fit before he gets back in the car.”
It means Liam Lawson will continue to deputise, with Suzuka an opportunity for the 21-year-old to shine given his exploits in Super Formula this season, and especially as it is a circuit he knows well after a fourth-placed finish earlier this year.
“I think he’s pretty keen to be in the car in Suzuka,” added Horner on Lawson. “We’ll just take it on a day-by-day basis and see how the recovery and nature take its course.”
On his second outing for AlphaTauri, Lawson came within six-and-a-half seconds of finishing 10th at Monza, with the team adopting a surprise two-stop strategy at the time. It later emerged that high degradation was the cause for the change in plan.
Horner feels Lawson again “did a solid job” behind the wheel, adding that “he’s acquitted himself very well”.
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