Tost: Surgery a possibility for injured Ricciardo

Franz Tost has not ruled out a need for Daniel Ricciardo to undergo surgery after he broke his left hand during Dutch Grand Prix practice.

While attempting to avoid Oscar Piastri's McLaren at Turn 3, Ricciardo locked up and slid into the barrier at the banked left-hander.

Immediately, the AlphaTauri driver indicated that his left arm was hurt and was taken to hospital where a break to a metacarpal on his left hand was diagnosed.

Ricciardo will be replaced by Liam Lawson for the remainder of the Zandvoort weekend, with the Australian almost certain to miss next weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

And AlphaTauri boss Tost suggested that surgery could be required for Ricciardo.

Surgery a possibility

"It is so bad that he cannot drive, he has broken his left-hand metacarpal," Tost told Viaplay.

"For sure he will not drive here and we will see what is going to happen for Monza, but maybe he has to have surgery.

"The doctors will decide in the next few days.

"Normal recovery for a normal person is up to six weeks, but he is a Formula 1 driver, and I hope this process will be shortened because we would like to have him in the car.

"Nevertheless, it has happened. It was a strange accident because he couldn't do anything. Piastri was in front, went into the tyre wall and Daniel was just behind him, he couldn't react and crashed.

"I told him that we are sorry from the team side and that he did a fantastic job, he could have been in the top 10.

"I told him that he will be in the car as soon as the injury is better and he can drive the car.

"He shouldn't take it too seriously as something worse could have happened, but that is life. We are looking forward to when he is back.

"He smiled a bit, he is in quite a good mood, although he is in a lot of pain because it is quite a serious injury.

"I hope that he can sleep well and he will fly to see another doctor to get another analysis [of the injury] before they decide what to do."