BREAKING: Liam Lawson to replace Ricciardo at the Dutch Grand Prix

After an unfortunate collision in FP2, Daniel Ricciardo suffered an injury to his left wrist that has left him unable to continue racing this weekend.

It's not been the best start to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend for Daniel Ricciardo and AlphaTauri, with Ricciardo hitting the wall during FP2 and causing an injury to his left wrist after the steering wheel flicked back as his car made contact with the wall.

As a result of the injury, it has left Ricciardo unable to continue racing this weekend as he takes some time off to recover and heal. It does however mean that Liam Lawson has been given the call up to fill in for Daniel this weekend, and fulfill his reserve driver role for the team. It will be interesting to see how Lawson fairs again Tsunoda for the rest of the weekend, but it should be noted that whilst Liam is a great talent, he has had very little Formula 1 experience, and with just 1 free practice session ahead of qualifying tomorrow, we shouldn't expect any heroics to come from his debut.

"Daniel Ricciardo has a break to a metacarpal on his left hand, and this injury will not allow him to continue his duties, so he will be replaced by the team’s reserve driver Liam Lawson for the remainder of this weekend" - Statement from AlphaTauri

There is also a debate scouring social media on whether Ricciardo could have avoided the collision; after fellow Aussie, Oscar Piastri, lost control of his car and hit the wall at turn 3, people are unsure on whether Daniel made the right decision to turn right into the wall or go left and around the stricken McLaren. However, after reviewing the on board camera feed, it shows that Ricciardo was going full pace, taking the racing line, and by the time he saw the McLaren stopped on track, he hit the brakes, locking up, and taking away any control he had over which direction the car was headed.

Unfortunately for Ricciardo, the fast pace in which the collision occured meant he didn't take his hand off the steering wheel in time before the car hit the wall sending the steering wheel into a frenzy, injuring his arm in the process.

Daniel Ricciardo sat ontop of his car clutching his injured wrist at the Dutch GP 2023 - Photo by Formula 1

This isn't the first time an injury has occured in this way, with just recently Robin Frijns breaking his wrist at the Mexico E-Prix earlier this year because of a collision early on in the race that saw his steering wheel being violently shaken out of his hand. Sadly for Frijns, he had to undergo surgery as a result of the incident, to repair damage done to his hand.

Similarly, Hamda Al Qubaisi suffered a severe fracture in her wrist last year whilst racing in the UAE Formula 4 at Yas Marina. She too underwent surgery to repair her injuries, and managed to recover well in time for her debut in F1 Academy in 2023, where she won her first race just 75 days after the incident.

Hamda Al Qubaisi gesturing to her previously injured wrist after her maiden victory in F1 Academy in Austria

We hope Daniel Ricciardo has a speedy recovery and is back behind the wheel of the AlphaTauri as soon as possible! Meanwhile, it will be very interesting to see how Liam Lawson fairs on his quick approaching outing in Formula 1.