Ricciardo has been absent from his stunted F1 comeback since the early stages of the Dutch GP three weeks ago, where he broke a metacarpal in his left hand in a crash at the Hugenholtz corner in second practice.
He underwent surgery on his injury two days later as he was replaced for the event at Zandvoort by Red Bull junior driver and 2023 Super Formula title contender Liam Lawson.
Lawson continued to deputise in Ricciardo’s place a week later at the Italian GP – the scene of Ricciardo’s most recent F1 victory back in 2021 when racing for McLaren – where Red Bull team boss Christian Horner suggested Ricciardo may miss four races in total and only return at the Qatar round in early October due to the time needed in such a recovery process.
Ahead of this weekend’s Singapore race, AlphaTauri’s official pre-event media preview confirmed that Ricciardo “will be present with the team in Singapore only for engineering purposes”.
The team gave no mention of Ricciardo’s plans for the Japanese GP next week.
In the same press release, Lawson, who finished 11th last time out at Monza having pushed team-mate Yuki Tsunoda close in qualifying too, said he “definitely felt more comfortable in Monza than in Zandvoort, even if there’s still a lot to learn”.
He added: “When you get more comfortable in these kinds of cars, it can make quite a big difference.
“Having done two races now, I’m also getting a better understanding of the difference between the tyre compounds, which is so important.
“I’d say Monza was pretty successful, even if it was disappointing to finish so close to the points.
“I think if I had had a better start, perhaps things could have been different, but it’s something that I will learn from, and I’m just excited moving forward.
"I know this is a very tough race physically, and when you get thrown into F1 in this situation, even with all the training in the world, it’s still such a tough adjustment.
It’s going to be extremely difficult, but we’ve been training for it and doing everything we can to prepare for that.
“Last year, I experienced the night-time routine [as Red Bull’s reserve]. It’s cool, to be honest, to go through a weekend like that. It’s a bit different to normal.
“Obviously, the biggest adjustment will be getting used to the track, as I’ve only driven it on the sim, and street circuits are probably the hardest to replicate.
“They take confidence, and when you’re new to the track, or even my situation being new to Formula 1, having that confidence early in the weekend is pretty tricky.
“I’ll be aiming to build up as many laps as we can, a bit like Monza, to be honest. That was the target there, and it will be a similar sort of thing.
“Generally, I like street circuits, for example, I absolutely love Monaco, so I’m expecting to enjoy Singapore too."
