When Daniel Ricciardo joined McLaren in 2021, he just wasn’t the same happy-go-lucky driver he used to be. With his two seasons in Woking came two years of underperformance and horrors—with the very occasional good result. Needless to say, his stint there wasn’t what he’d wanted for himself or his career. To put into perspective just how unhappy he was for the past couple of years, Ricciardo just underwent surgery on his left hand, and he looks happier now than he did at McLaren. Why exactly did he get surgery?

Ricciardo’s time at McLaren left quite a few emotional and mental scars on the Aussie. Turns out, the physical scar on his left hand was also thanks to his McLaren seat—in that, it came at the hands of Oscar Piastri, the driver who replaced him at McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo is “relatively unchanged” after his surgery

When F1 returned after the summer break to resume its circus, Ricciardo was all pumped to give his best in the second half of the season, having worked on himself during the break. Well, Circuit Zandvoort had different plans for him. During Free Practice 2 on Friday, Piastri crashed into the wall at Turn 3. On a flying lap behind him, Ricciardo didn’t see the McLaren in time to slow down and had no choice but to crash into the wall as well. 

The steering wheel’s jerky movements fractured a metacarpal in his left hand, writing him off for the rest of the weekend. Further scans revealed that getting back into his AlphaTauri in just a matter of weeks wouldn’t be possible. Hence, the surgery.

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Although the surgery happened right after the Dutch GP weekend, it was only yesterday that he shared a post-operation update on Instagram with a close-up of the stitches on his hand. He captioned the (rather gory) picture, “Relatively unchanged.” Sky Sports F1’s Twitter handle reposted the photo and wrote, “Ouch 🤕” Considering Ricciardo’s sunshiny personality and how much almost every F1 fan loves him, Twitteratis came together to send him messages for a speedy recovery.

Daniel Ricciardo is in high demand for yet another F1 return

Just two races into his F1 return with AlphaTauri (after spending six months on the sidelines as Red Bull’s reserve driver), tragedy struck again. With the Dutch and Italian GP being written off, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner revealed that Ricciardo might also have to miss the Singapore and Japanese GP. That’s almost another month without seeing Ricciardo back on track. In light of this—and his painful update—fans wished him well.

Along with a ‘get well soon’ message, one fan pointed out how dangerous F1 can be.

Given the face he made for the picture, it was clear the aftermath of the surgery had been quite painful for the Honey Badger. Many fans pointed that out.

With how haphazard the stitches looked, one fan hoped the actual surgery was cleaner. Another wrote how he’s getting ready for Halloween (courtesy of his Frankenstein-esque stitches).

A few fans even empathized with Ricciardo, having gone through similar ordeals.

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Do you think Daniel Ricciardo can be back by the Qatar GP, or will he have to sit out longer, watching his F1 dream slip away?