Daniel Ricciardo shows off nasty scar as hand surgery rehab continues

Almost two weeks on from his frustrating hand bone break, Daniel Ricciardo has offered an update on how he’s doing after resuming training.

The Australian is continuing to go through rehabilitation on his hand, having broken a metacarpal in his left hand following a crash in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Ricciardo had encountered the already-crashed car of compatriot Oscar Piastri, and had to choose between hitting the stricken McLaren or the barriers lining the corner. Choosing the barriers with a light impact, it was nevertheless a heavy enough collision to result in a broken bone for Ricciardo.

Daniel Ricciardo: ‘Relatively unchanged’

Taking to Instagram almost two weeks on from the impact, following which he sat out the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix as he underwent surgery in Barcelona under Dr. Javier Mir, Ricciardo revealed that he has resumed physical training.

In a post on Thursday, the Australian showed off the long sewn-up scar on the left-hand side of his hand, showing the extent his skin had to be opened up in order to operate.

In his typical laconic humour, Ricciardo labelled his post with the caption “relatively unchanged”. He also shared a video of himself on a static bike, covered in sweat, miming along to Olivia Rodrigo’s smash hit Driver’s Licence.

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🚨 Daniel Ricciardo en Instagram: "Relativamente sin cambios".#F1 pic.twitter.com/mX3izAjwcE

— Fórmula Directa (@FormulaDirecta) September 8, 2023

When might Daniel Ricciardo return to action?

No definitive timeline has been decided upon yet for Ricciardo’s return, with the Australian having only just taken over the AlphaTauri seat prior to the summer break as he replaced the struggling Nyck de Vries.

Ricciardo’s seat has been filled by Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson, but it could be a few more races before Lawson hops back out to return the seat to the Australian.

A return for the Japanese Grand Prix later this month has been mooted, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner reckons Suzuka could be too optimistic.

“I think certainly Singapore, I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll be ready for that,” Horner told media, including PlanetF1.com, at Monza.

“And I think it will be optimistic for Japan, but I think his recovery is going well.

“He’s got mobility of the hand, he’s into rehabilitation now, but we’ve seen with motorcyclists, rushing comebacks can sometimes do more damage.

“So we just want to make sure he’s fully fit before he gets back in the car. I should think he’s pretty keen to be in the car in Suzuka. We just take it on a day-by-day basis and see how the recovery and nature takes its course.”

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