Daniel Ricciardo Reveals He Is Not as Tough as Moto GP Racers – “They Are Not Human”

Sabyasachi Biswas | 31/12/2023
Daniel Ricciardo Reveals He Is Not as Tough as Moto GP Racers - “They Are Not Humans”

After Daniel Ricciardo broke his arm during the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, he came in contact with a doctor where he got to know about the toughness of the Moto GP riders. He exclaimed that they were not humans while he was in the hospital, busy making the doctors and nurses laugh with his impulsive questions.

As reported by FormulaPassion, Ricciardo said when the doctor Xavier Mir spoke to him about the toughness of the riders who usually come to him for recovery. Hearing them, the Honey Badger said with surprise, “Oh, F1, MotoGP, they are the same: they are not human, they don’t feel pain.”

However, the Honey Badger revealed that he is not the same and he feels pain. “I think they thought I was as tough as a MotoGP rider. But I’m not,” he further added. Notably, the AlphaTauri driver reached Dr. Mir through Lance Stroll and Jose, one of Ricciardo’s friends who works in Alpine.

Interestingly, this was the same doctor who nursed Stroll when the Aston Martin driver injured himself at the beginning of the 2023 F1 season. Mir works as an important doctor for Moto GP riders and has been doing the same for a long time now.

Daniel Ricciardo and his injury story

As Daniel Ricciardo reached out to Dr. Xavier Mir for recovery, he came to know about the toughness of the MotoGP riders. Upon hearing them, Ricciardo freaked out and said that he felt the pain and that under certain conditions, he would cry for the next two days at the hospital.

Notably, the 34-year-old had fractures in eight places and it took a while for him to recover from this. In his healing process, Ricciardo missed out on the Dutch GP and was not available till the Qatar GP.

Ricciardo broke his wrist during the Free Practice of the Zandvoort race. His absence meant Liam Lawson got the surprising chance in AlphaTauri where he impressed the top officials at Red Bull Racing.

All in all, the 2023 F1 season saw the redemption of Daniel Ricciardo where he went without a seat from McLaren and then rejoined Red Bull as their reserve driver. In the end, he was given the chance to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.

Post Edited By: Aishwary Gaonkar
Daniel Ricciardo

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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