Daniel Ricciardo's return to the Formula 1 paddock to replace Nyck De Vries brought a lot of excitement to the sport. They are getting a familiar and jolly face that can be deadly at times. But, little did most people know that the AlphaTauri driver's stint would be cut short due to an injury. Zandvoort saw multiple unfortunate scenarios that FIA hopes to not be repeated in the Italian Grand Prix. One of them was Oscar Piastri's crash that cost the Honey Badger his season.
AlphaTauri has formally called up Liam Lawson and the young driver made his debut. He finished ahead of Yuki Tsunoda at Zandvoort but fell short of a points finish. A lot of fans enjoyed his Formula 1 start but they could not help but be worried sick of Daniel Ricciardo.
Fan anxiety only went up when Christian Horner revealed that the Honey Badger would not be available for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, via Sky Sports.
“For a normal being, that would be a couple of months. But, for a Grand Prix driver that's probably much shorter. We need to see how that recovery process goes. But, certainly not Italy,” the Red Bull head said about Ricciardo's injury timetable. The Formula 1 boss also went into further detail about the reason for the AlphaTauri driver's delayed return, “He's had several screws and a plate fitted to his metacarpal. It went well, it was successful. The bone was broken in multiple places but it was a fairly straightforward procedure. So now it's all about recovery.”