When Ricciardo broke a metacarpal in his left hand in a apply crash at Zandvoort, Horner initially recommended that the Australian was targeting a return for the Qatar round last weekend.
However on the Monday forward of the race, Ricciardo video referred to as his substitute Liam Lawson to tell the Kiwi he would be required one last time earlier than returning in america GP.
Horner says Ricciardo was proper to delay his comeback as the intense, humid Qatari situations left drivers throwing up, partially dropping their imaginative and prescient and being identified with acute dehydration.
“I feel we need to see him in full health”, Horner stated of the eight-time GP winner. “I feel it was proper to overlook this race, notably because it turned out with the situations that we had.
“Austin [the next round], clearly it’ll be tough for him to leap straight again right into a dash race weekend however I am certain he’ll be bodily in fine condition to take that on.”
AlphaTauri has maintained all through that Ricciardo can be the one to resolve when he ought to come again. The Australian solely returned to front-line F1 responsibility in Hungary to interchange the sacked Nyck de Vries following a stint on the sidelines after parting methods with McLaren.
Ricciardo has, nevertheless, already returned to in depth simulator responsibility and was approaching full race distances with minimal misery.
Ricciardo has been out of motion since his crash on the Dutch Grand Prix
Photograph by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Horner alluded to having to dissuade Ricciardo from making a untimely comeback.
He continued: “In fact, he was wanting to return again however he has a contract secured for subsequent yr [with AlphaTauri] and in Liam, we have got such an awesome sub.
“It was additionally a great way of giving him one other grand prix with out truly placing pointless strain and potential longer-term harm on Dan to say, ‘Look, do not overstretch it’.
“Because it turned out, the situations that we’ve got right here might have been very testing for him.
“To have had that additional 12 days within the run-up to Austin is one of the best preparation.”