Ricciardo has been absent from his stunted F1 comeback for the reason that early phases of the Dutch GP three weeks in the past, the place he broke a metacarpal in his left hand in a crash on the Hugenholtz nook in second observe.
He underwent surgical procedure on his damage two days later as he was changed for the occasion at Zandvoort by Pink Bull junior driver and 2023 Tremendous Formulation title contender Liam Lawson.
Lawson continued to deputise in Ricciardo’s place every week later on the Italian GP – the scene of Ricciardo’s most up-to-date F1 victory again in 2021 when racing for McLaren – the place Pink Bull workforce boss Christian Horner advised Ricciardo might miss 4 races in complete and solely return on the Qatar spherical in early October because of the time wanted in such a restoration course of.
Forward of this weekend’s Singapore race, AlphaTauri’s official pre-event media preview confirmed that Ricciardo “will probably be current with the workforce in Singapore just for engineering functions”.
The workforce gave no point out of Ricciardo’s plans for the Japanese GP subsequent week.
In the identical press launch, Lawson, who completed eleventh final day out at Monza having pushed team-mate Yuki Tsunoda shut in qualifying too, mentioned he “positively felt extra snug in Monza than in Zandvoort, even when there’s nonetheless lots to be taught”.
He added: “Once you get extra snug in these sorts of vehicles, it may well make fairly a giant distinction.
“Having achieved two races now, I’m additionally getting a greater understanding of the distinction between the tyre compounds, which is so necessary.
“I’d say Monza was fairly profitable, even when it was disappointing to complete so near the factors.
“I believe if I had had a greater begin, maybe issues may have been totally different, however it’s one thing that I’ll be taught from, and I’m simply excited transferring ahead.
“I do know this can be a very robust race bodily, and whenever you get thrown into F1 on this state of affairs, even with all of the coaching on the earth, it’s nonetheless such a tricky adjustment.
Liam Lawson, AlphaTauri AT04
Photograph by: Erik Junius
It’s going to be extraordinarily troublesome, however we’ve been coaching for it and doing every thing we are able to to organize for that.
“Final yr, I skilled the night-time routine [as Red Bull’s reserve]. It’s cool, to be trustworthy, to undergo a weekend like that. It’s a bit totally different to regular.
“Clearly, the largest adjustment will probably be getting used to the observe, as I’ve solely pushed it on the sim, and road circuits are in all probability the toughest to duplicate.
“They take confidence, and whenever you’re new to the observe, and even my state of affairs being new to Formulation 1, having that confidence early within the weekend is fairly tough.
“I’ll be aiming to construct up as many laps as we are able to, a bit like Monza, to be trustworthy. That was the goal there, and it will likely be an identical type of factor.
“Usually, I like road circuits, for instance, I completely love Monaco, so I’m anticipating to take pleasure in Singapore too.”