Ted Kravitz offers UPDATE on Daniel Ricciardo injury

Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri — Photo: © LAT Images

Singapore Grand Prix

Ted Kravitz offers UPDATE on Daniel Ricciardo injury

The Australian has been nursing a broken hand

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 16 September 2023 04:57

Ted Kravitz has claimed that Daniel Ricciardo's broken hand 'doesn't look too bad' after seeing the Australian on the pit wall at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Ricciardo has been ruled out of the last three race weekends after injuring his left hand in a crash in FP2 at the Dutch GP.

This has meant that Liam Lawson has taken over his seat at AlphaTauri, after Ricciardo had already taken the seat from the underperforming Nyck de Vries.

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The 21-year-old Lawson has done a stellar job as Yuki Tsunoda's third team-mate of the season, particularly given that just six days before he took part in qualifying at Zandvoort, he was racing in Super Formula in Japan.

His performances may be harming Ricciardo's prospects of a full-time seat on the Formula 1 grid in 2024, which is why the Australian will be desperate to get into the car.

Now, having seen him on the pit wall during FP2 at the Singapore GP, Kravitz believes that he shouldn't be too far away.

“Every time he comes out and takes his place on the AlphaTauri pit wall, he gets a crowd cheer," Kravitz told Sky Sports F1.

"He’s still so popular and such good will towards him. I’ve just been looking at the injury on his left hand and he’s still able to do stuff.

“He’s taking a drink from that left hand, so I don’t know if that’s actually one of his exercises, clench and lift your AlphaTauri sustainable water bottle, but it doesn’t look too bad. He can do plenty of stuff with that left hand, obviously not drive at the moment. He doesn’t look like he’s in pain with it is what I’m saying."

Ricciardo looking for a full-time AlphaTauri spot?

Ricciardo's crash at Zandvoort left him with as many as seven fractures in his left hand

Ricciardo has been without a permanent seat in F1 since he was booted out of the McLaren team at the end of last season for some poor performances.

His old Red Bull team then took him on as a reserve driver, meaning he was reunited with the team where he claimed seven of his eight race victories.

He was given the opportunity at AlphaTauri originally until the end of the season, with a chance of impressing the team and getting a full-time seat in 2024.

However, that only lasted two races before his injury ruled him out of (so far) the next three. This means he is currently sat on zero points, whilst his team have just three all season.

If he does manage to get back into the car fairly soon, he will need to start scoring points if he is to stave off the challenge of both Lawson and Tsunoda, who have arguably been the team's strongest driver line-up all season.