Christian Horner explains why Daniel Ricciardo skipping the Qatar GP was the right choice

Daniel Ricciardo is set to return to AlphaTauri at COTA.

Christian Horner explains why Daniel Ricciardo skipping the Qatar GP was the right choice

Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)

Red Bull reserve driver Daniel Riccardo replaced Nyck De Vries at AlphaTauri after the British GP at Silverstone, following the Dutchman’s poor performance. But his return to the sport didn’t last long after he suffered from a broken metacarpal bone after an incident at the FP2 at Dutch GP, Zandvoort. Liam Lawson was called in replacement of Riccardo while he recovered.

Ricciardo was supposed to join Alphatauri at the Qatar GP. But he didn’t recover enough to start the race. Hence, Ricciardo is now set to rejoin the grid at the US GP in Texas’s COTA, where he will have recovered from the injury.

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Red Bull boss Christian Horner claimed that it was for the good that Riccardo skipped the race because the Qatar GP would’ve been too extreme for him. He said, as reported by motosport.com, “It was the right choice to skip this race, especially as it turned out with the circumstances we had.” Even Alphatauri has repeatedly stated that it is on Riccardo to join back whenever he feels fit to return.

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In the meantime, Riccardo has been actively working on his recovery and has also completed extensive programs on the simulator. Liam was performing well for the team, and Horner said, “He already has a contract for next year [at Alphatauri], and we have a great substitute in Liam.”

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What did the paddock think about Daniel Riccardo’s injury

Jonathan Eddolls, Alphatauri’s head of trackside engineer, said that Riccardo is still going through the recovery phase, and he’s taking a while away. That was why there was no ‘fixed’ time for his recovery and return.

Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)
Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)

Helmut Marko, advisor at Red Bull, also said that the injury is complicated and has seven fractures. The same doctor who operated on Marc Marquez is taking care of Riccardo. Marko expected Riccardo to take around six weeks to recover from the injury.

Riccardo shared an update on his recovery by posting a photo of his hand as it recovered from surgery. For Riccardo, it was a bad time to be injured with the Red Bull in talks about replacing Sergio Perez following his recent performance in the team.

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