During Friday practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo crashed into the wall while avoiding a collision with Oscar Piastri and broke his arm. The AlphaTauri driver needed surgery and a month and a half of recovery before he could get behind the wheel again.
A few months after these events, Daniel shared his experiences before, during and after the operation.
Daniel Ricciardo: “I was taken from the circuit’s medical center to Amsterdam. There in the hospital they took pictures and confirmed the fracture. At this point I felt like an elephant had stepped on my hand. The doctor said, “I recommend surgery. It can be done here, but you may want to wait a few days for the swelling to subside and then consult with the person you want to consult and have the operation performed at the clinic of your choice.
We then contacted Lance [Строллом], and then with Jose, a friend of ours who works at Alpine and knows a lot of the MotoGP guys, and he’s Spanish. He gave contact information to Xavier Mira, who operated on Lance. And Lance also said to contact him.
For me, meeting Xavier was a blessing and a curse at the same time, as he has operated on many MotoGP riders, but they are different from ordinary people. The fact is that they are not like us. I think they expected me to be as strong as the MotoGP guys because I’m a Formula 1 driver – I don’t feel any pain.
No doctor, I feel pain. I was ready to spend the entire 48 hours in the hospital crying in pain! But all the doctors and nurses helped me a lot. They laughed all the time as I flinched each time and asked questions about the needles hitting my arm.
The fracture itself turned out to be serious: the bone was crushed into eight pieces, which did not look very healthy. The bone I broke is between my wrist and little finger. It was incredibly painful for me just to touch the top of my arm with my finger. Maybe I feel more pain than others, I don’t know. I moaned and complained constantly because I don’t like pain, but my arm was broken.
I tried to convince myself, “Yes, you are hurt, and this is inevitable, but people have been hurt much more seriously.” Don’t get me wrong, but I tried to see what happened as a test for myself, and that allowed me to stay positive.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
