Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen started their first full seasons in Formula 1 with the same team—Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri). Once Verstappen made the step up to Red Bull—the works team—in 2016 to partner Ricciardo, he hasn’t looked back. On the other hand, Ricciardo moved to different teams, only to come back “home” to the Red Bull family. Now a driver for AlphaTauri, he’s bidding to return to Red Bull, but in his effort to prove he still has it to race for the best, he might’ve jeopardized his chances. In light of this, Verstappen’s former boss (and Ricciardo’s present one), Franz Tost, gave the Aussie a reality check.

Following his official return to F1 at the Hungarian GP, Daniel Ricciardo had two reasonably clean race weekends and looked like he was back to being his happy self. Leaving his rather dark McLaren past behind, he looked to build on the form he showed before the summer break. However, a freak accident sent him off course, and the road to recovery might be long.

Daniel Ricciardo wouldn’t want to hear what Franz Tost has to say

During Free Practice 2, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri crashed into the barriers at Turn 3. Behind him, Ricciardo, on a fast lap, got caught off-guard by Piastri’s car and couldn’t do much to avoid the wall himself. As his AT04 crashed into the barriers, he didn’t take his hands off the steering wheel, whose jerky movements broke the metacarpal bones in his left hand. As soon as the X-rays confirmed the fracture, his chances of getting back in the car this weekend became non-existent.

While discussing Ricciardo’s situation with the media, Franz Tost said, “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.” This means that not only will he miss this weekend’s race, but there’s a high likelihood he will also miss the Italian GP next weekend. Not only that, his appearance at the Singapore and Japanese GP might be up in the air, too. 

Tost continued, “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.”

Read More: Meters Away From Horrific Disaster, Oscar Piastri Thanks Daniel Ricciardo for Saving His Life

The question is: Will his time to prove himself run out before he can fully recover? With just nine race weekends left in the season after the Dutch GP, can he come back and prove he deserves to stay, or will his replacement one-up him and take away his fairytale ending?

Who is replacing Daniel Ricciardo for the Dutch GP (and likely beyond)?

Considering the Honey Badger replaced Nyck De Vries at AlphaTauri, you would have thought the team would’ve given him a second chance, at least until Ricciardo gets fully fit. But Red Bull management isn’t known to give those too often and instead put its faith in the team’s reserve driver, Liam Lawson. The young New Zealander was in contention for De Vries’ seat for 2024 before the Dutchman’s premature sacking. Now that the seat’s heir has injured himself, the Red Bull prodigy has been asked to step up and partner Yuki Tsunoda.

As he’s set to make his race debut on Sunday, an old video of him talking to his temporary teammate came up where the two spoke about racing against the sport’s all-time greats, including Lewis Hamilton. While telling Lawson about his debut in 2021, Tsunoda mentioned how nervous he was to race against Hamilton. Lawson replied, “[Hamilton] is also like the guy, when we were both growing up, he was obviously really in Formula 1. It’s crazy that you’re actually racing against him. It’s like I couldn’t imagine racing against Lewis Hamilton.” Courtesy of Ricciardo’s injury, he’s now gotten the opportunity to do so.

When do you think Daniel Ricciardo will be back and fit to race?

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