Ricciardo, paid by McLaren to leave the team for this season, was called to replace sacked AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries from Hungary. But two rounds later, the Australian crashed in practice at Zandvoort, sustaining a broken metacarpal in his left hand and flew to Spain for immediate surgery.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner supposed that Ricciardo might initially target a return for Qatar following the Singapore and Japan double-header. But Autosport understands that the eight-time grand prix winner has now deferred his comeback until Texas (20-22 October).
