Ricciardo: It feels like I’m starting all over again

Daniel Ricciardo missed five races due to a left hand injury, but in Austin he returns behind the wheel of the AlphaTauri car and ensures that his physical condition is in perfect order. Although I am willing to admit that the recovery was more difficult than he expected.

Daniel Ricciardo: “Everything is good and I am very happy to be back. My hand is fine and I want to get behind the wheel of the car as quickly as possible. By the way, it’s nice that people are interested in my well-being! If we talk about recovery, everything was a little more difficult than I thought. But the fact is that when I was injured and it became clear which bones were broken, at first it seemed as if everything would heal without any problems.

But when I had the operation in Spain and a more in-depth examination was carried out, it turned out that the fracture was much more complex, which meant that the recovery took longer and the process was much more painful.

In Singapore our team car received a whole series of updates and that weekend went quite well for AlphaTauri. The drivers have told me that I will feel some positive changes, so I expect the car to be more efficient than when I was temporarily out of the race.

But this will only be my third race this year, so I don’t feel very prepared. It feels like I’m starting all over again, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. But Liam Lawson, who replaced me, did a great job.”