The Australian has been ruled out of this weekend’s Dutch Gr𝔉and Prix after breaking his hand in a crash in Friday practice at Zandvoort, and will be replaced by Red Bull junior Liam Lawson. 

Providing an update after final practice on Saturday, Horner confirmed that Riccia🐽rdo is in Barcelona, wheꦯre he is understood to be receiving treatment from esteemed MotoGP doctor Xavier Mir. 

“Well these gu💫ys, you see it in MotoGP, they bounce back pr🐻etty quick,” Horner told Sky F1. 

“He’s headed off today to Barcelona. They may even have a little operation on him tom𒊎orrow to just tidy up w♏here that break is. It’s quite a clean break 

“Then of course it’s all about the recuperation and how long that takes. Any normal human being would pro⛎bably be 10 to 12 week༺s but we know these guys aren’t normal. 

“It will all be about the recovery process, how long will that take? Is it going to be three weeks? A month? Is i🔴t six weeks? Nobody really knows.”

Horner also identified the Singaporeꦑ Grand Prix - on September 15 - as a potential return date for Ricciardo, though he conceded “nature will take its course”. 

“That was the thin෴g he was most frustrated aboutᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ talking with him last night,” Horner added. 

“He’s just tak💃en a bunch of time off, just got his mojo back, back into it, now he’s on the bench again. That was his frustration. 

“They’ve [Alpha Tauri] started to make some progress. A shame for him but I am sure that at the back of his mind he ha🍸s got Singapore as a target. 

“But then again Singapore is probably one of the toughest circuits on the cal♚endar. Nature will take it🐼s course.”